Why Should You Say Yes to Employee Transport Management System?

Imagine a company filled with employees who are free from all the worries related to security and inconvenience during their office commute! This has become possible now, thanks to the Employee Transportation Management System.
In metro cities, plenty of office goers work in dynamic shifts, meet clients, and project deadlines. Most of them waste a significant amount of time in finding public transport or waiting for their pickups during office commute. Standing in queues for a long time or having no clue of the arrival of pickups leads to their anxiety and worries. As the employees are the most important for every company to drive its growth, they should be worry-free during their office time. Only then their productivity will be improved.
Nowadays, some companies have understood the importance of their employees. Therefore they have started relying on Employee Transport Management Solution. Why?
Before answering this question, let’s have a look at how people around the world commute for work and what sort of problems they are facing.

The Work Commute Scenario of People Around The World

There are various modes of commute popular among employees around the world, such as

• Bus
• Train
• Auto rickshaw
• Cab
• Metrorail
• Ferry
• Personal vehicles  

Even though flexible work schedules and work from home have been introduced in many companies to fix the commuting issues,  the average commute time for the people work around the world has only increased in the last few years, thanks to the traffic congestion in most parts of the world.

Commuting Crisis

Commuting is not just the worst part of the day, and it also affects the health of employees.
Following are some ramifications of a long commute:

• A long commute increases neck and back pain incidents 
• Event a 10 miles long commute can increase the blood pressure of your employees
• Daily commutes of around 15 miles can make employees less physically active and prone to have obesity and unhealthy waist size 
• A long commute is linked with a higher level of subjective health complaints 
• A long commute increases exposure to harmful air pollution  
• A long term commute increases the risk of divorce by 40%  

Commute not only affects employees but also hampers your business. Here are some common consequences of long commutes:

1 Missed Workdays

It is proven in many studies that long commute hurts employees’ health. So some of your employees may take sudden leaves owing to their ill-health due to the long commute. This can cause delayed project delivery. 

2 Difficulty in Hiring 

49% of employees want to work near homes, states a survey conducted by Clutch. It means you may face difficulty in hiring those good employees who need to commute long to reach your office. 

Commuting Opportunities

To say goodbye to these commuting crisis, advancement in transportation technologies have changed the way people go to work and come back home every day. From introducing connected and autonomous vehicles to offering ridesharing services, transportation technology has helped in boosting the development of daily transit. Furthermore, Employee Transportation Solution (ETS) has also started resolving employee transport problems to a particular extent and come out as an important office commute platform.
Why is ETS considered as the essential office commute platform? The answer lies in its features and benefits. Let’s talk about that.
Read More About Employee Transport Management System.

Part 2: What Web Accessibility Means and How It Applies to Web Development?

In the first part of the article series, we discussed what is accessibility, why it is important and its benefits. In this article, we are going to dwell more into web accessibility.
There is a myth that it is difficult to make a website and web applications accessible. Though it requires a proper planning and execution, but still making websites accessible is not that difficult.  In this article, we are going to discuss about 7 guidelines which will help you to make your web products more accessible and accepted by a wider audience.
Before we jump to the guidelines it is necessary to understand a few basics things about web accessibility. Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is a vision by World Wide Consortium (W3C) whose main aim is to improve web accessibility for disabled and visually impaired people. These people often require some form of assistive technologies to help them like screen readers or braille hardware. People with low to medium visual impairment have a hard time reading the content if it has low contrast or too small to read.
To make sure that our websites are compatible with this hardware and accessible to all visually impaired people certain measures are needed to be taken care of. WAI has published a guideline called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which can help in achieving good web accessibility. WCAG guidelines have 3 levels of compliance:

• Level A (Must have): This is the most basic level of compliance in WCAG. Few basic things included in this level are providing text alternative of images, websites should be navigable by using keyboards (used in case of screen readers) and not using color as the only medium of communication, it should always be used along with some label, icon, pattern or shape.
• Level AA (Should have): This is the most desired level of guidelines and most of the accessible websites consider this level for their platforms. Few basic things included in this level are having good readable text along with good contrast ratio and support for interface zoom
• Level AAA (Good to have): This is the highest level of accessibility and not required in most of the cases. It requires sign language for audio content which is a bit difficult in all cases to put in place.

Read More About Web Accessibility.

What is PHI and What is Not PHI?

Protected Health Information (PHI) is basically the personally identifiable health information that is protected and regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was filed or rather written 20 years ago when smartphones were a distant reality.
Therefore, everything related to this act was penned down for mostly an analog world of physical X-rays and even paper files. And in today’s era of wearables, genetic sequencing, health apps, and much more, getting a proper and precise definition of PHI can be quite difficult to understand, especially for the developers who are trying to parse or figure out whether they need to be HIPAA compliant or not.
Through this post, we hope to provide a clearer picture of what exactly is PHI or Protected Health Information and what is not considered PHI. And hopefully, you as a healthcare software developer will be able to use the below-mentioned information as a reference while you are determining if all the information that you are collecting for your digital health solution fall under PHI or not.

Covered Entities and Business Associates

Before we proceed further to talk about the definition of PHI, what information constitutes PHI and what doesn’t, let’s first understand two major definitions under HIPAA and those are – Business Associates and Covered Entities.
Covered Entities
A covered entity is basically a person who provides treatment, payment, as well as the operations in the healthcare sector. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses fall under the covered entities. The healthcare providers usually include doctors, clinics, dentists, psychologists, nursing homes, pharmacies, chiropractors, and last but not the least, the hospitals.
Health plans include the health insurance companies, company health plans, HMOs, Medicare & Medicaid. In fact, schools and employers that handle the PHI in order to enroll their employees and students in any sort of health plan also fall under the definition of a Health Plan.
Here’s a complete list of entities that come under covered entities. Please take a look.

• Dental and doctors’ offices, clinics, psychologists
• Insurance companies, health plans, HMOs
• Pharmacies, nursing homes, home healthcare agencies or hospitals
• Healthcare clearinghouses
• Government programs that contribute towards healthcare

The Definition of Protected Health Information (PHI)?

PHI stands for Protected Health Information, which is any information that is related to the health status of an individual. This can include the provision of health care, medical record and/or payment for the treatment of a particular patient and can be linked to him or her. The term “information” can be interpreted in a very broad category and the main phrase, in this case, is “that can be linked to a specific individual”.
PHI differs from PII (Personally Identifiable Information). The latter is considered as a legal definition – PII is generally used to identify an individual uniquely. This is mostly used when the condition or illness is rare.
What is ePHI?
ePHI stands for electronic protected health information which is PHI transferred, received or simply saved in an electronic form. The types of ePHI include patient names, fingerprints, addresses, social security numbers, email addresses, and photographic images. Along with this information, past medical records are also kept private.
Read More About Protected Health Information (PHI).

Beauty Salons Could Be the next Big Thing in the On-demand Service Industry

Technology has evolved over the years, a century ago, it was the machines, industrialization, and factories. Then came the internet, about three decades back, and it completely transformed our lives. Before this, did you ever imagine being able to connect on a real-time video call with a relative staying seven seas across the world? Or did you ever think that now with a few buttons you could call yourself a chauffeur at any time in the night? Today, practically you can get grocery, medicines, laundry, food – anything under the earth with a few touch points on a small screen – these are on-demand services.
Just like human life has evolved over time, on-demand services to have evolved drastically. The concept is now not just limited to a handful of industries. Many industries and professions have taken to this model to further their own growth and provide better service to their customers. One among them, and probably one that is better placed to thrive on this model than the others, is the salon and beauty services industry.

Emergence of the Beauty On-demand Concept

The beauty industry has rarely been short of customers and the interest is only picking up in this millennium. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the generation of today is perhaps even more interested in physical appearance and presentability than its predecessors.
The primary reason why on-demand services have become such a vogue is that people are trying to make routine activities quick and time efficient. On-demand taxi services came up to save people the time and troubles of waiting in line for a cab. On-demand food delivery services gained prominence because they saved the travelling time to and from the restaurant as well as the time spent waiting for a table. Similarly, the idea of a beauty service at home has come into being for the purpose of minimizing the time spent by customers for availing beauty services.

The Reason Behind the Exorbitant Demand for ‘at Home Beauty Services

In the US, approximately 28% of all hairdressers, cosmetologists and stylists are already working as independent contractors in the beauty industry that is worth nearly $46 billion! The beauty industry thus presents an ideal environment for on-demand services to thrive. The situation is no different in other parts of the world as well. Thus, there has been a major spike in demand for beauty salon service at home and it looks likely that the on-demand model is here to stay in this sector.
Undoubtedly the major reason for the newfound demand for beauty on-demand services is the time efficiency that such a service offers. Customers can avail of the salon service at home without wasting any time traveling. The beautician would visit the customer’s location and provide the service just like he/she would at a regular salon.
Booking an appointment at a salon is often a hassled process too. Firstly, it isn’t a 2-minute job as it may seem to you. You may not get the appointment at your preferred time and would have to tweak your schedule to accommodate it. And if your schedule is too cramped to make room for the appointment, as is often the case, you would have to postpone the appointment or allocate your very limited leisure time for the purpose. And both these options are not ones that you would accept with glee, are they?
Besides, during peak hours at the salon, you would usually find yourself twiddling your thumbs or playing games on your phone in the waiting area. The waiting time may run up to an hour or maybe even more!
On-demand salons provide most, if not all, the services that you could avail of at a regular salon. Manicures, pedicures, massages, professional makeup services, beauty treatments; you name it and they have it! So the customers are basically not missing out on a service if they prepare to avail of it at home. Customers are also often unaware of better deals available at other salons. With an on-demand service marketplace, customers can check for best offers and hire the corresponding service provider.

What the Future Holds for On-demand Beauty Services?

The success of on-demand apps across various industries tells us that the market and potential are massive for any on-demand service. Just take a look at what Uber and Airbnb managed to achieve in their sectors! When you take an attractive and much-in-demand commodity or service and make it instantly accessible for anyone, you will only achieve positive results. Beauty services are no exception to this rule.
Besides, the massive the valuation of the industry means that there is ample room for a plethora of on-demand beauty service providers to co-exist and succeed. As more and more businesses begin to infiltrate this market, its growth would pick up the pace and there will be a larger pie for everyone to share.
Recognizing the massive potential of beauty on-demand, the investors to haven’t shied away from pumping in the money, as is evident from the initial funding received by the startups listed in this article. So new entrants would likely have the interest of multiple investors, provided they have the right product.
The beauty industry and the on-demand service concept are truly a match made in heaven and the future for on-demand beauty services would most likely be far better than its already fruitful present. The industry is only going to head in one direction – upwards!
A number of startups have already shown the way for the others to follow and have also proved how lucrative the on-demand beauty service industry is. However, the deal-breaker between competitors in this sector is going to be technology and the quality of mobile apps in particular.
Read More About On-demand Beauty Services.

Mobility Surge Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to a company’s contribution and devotion towards doing common good to the society. It portrays a responsible behavior that does not indemnify humanity. It may also in some cases align an organization’s business approach, its values, concerns, and strategies to devote to a social cause and bring smiles and happiness in return. The changing times are witnessing many corporate and businesses across the globe doing their bit towards the betterment of the society because it is only together that we can grow and flourish in an environment that is subjective to one and all.
CSR can be put to action in many different verticals; Right from taking initiatives for education empowerment, prevention of diseases, socio-political concerns, to using environment-friendly techniques of production through the use of renewable resources. Besides, it also covers impartial employee treatment, good resource management to attain employee satisfaction; this includes fair remuneration, providing specialized training and benefits in the form of fitness and health programs. Gender equality and bridging the gap between our diverse cultures also aids in maintaining the CSR balance.
The large Enterprises are looking at mobility and social media to augment their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drives. Mobility can bring a wave of change under the purview of social reforms; in the form of making a benevolent contribution to address most of the social and economic issues. Mobility through its numerous inventions and unique apps has reached the general public because of its instant connect. It is, in fact, one of best platforms to address issues that can travel at the speed of light and aid people in distress at any given situation.

Mobile App solutions that stemmed Social Awareness

Microsoft has been doing its bit towards corporate social responsibility, and it has done it in style with the creation of HelpBridge. HelpBridge as the name suggest bridges the gap between people in distress and those who wish to lend assistance during crisis or emergency situations. The app aids users to donate instantly via text or send messages to other emergency contacts. It also facilitates users check for volunteer opportunities at the time of crisis. A great package for a great cause!
Google has now an app to its credit called Google One Today to boost their corporate social responsibility. Stressing the need to donate on an everyday basis, it enables users to donate $1 each day towards any social cause or for your favorite nonprofits.
Read More About Mobility Surge Corporate Social Responsibility.

Android EditText : setFilters Example : Numeric Text field Patterns and Length Restriction.

Sometimes requirement comes in a way when one needs to restrict characters to be entered in Edit Text. Scenario can be “username should be greater than 6 characters”, “accepts only decimal number with 2 digits after fraction”, etc.
In this regard, EditText’ setFilters works at its best. EditText’s setFilters method can be used while playing with length of characters to be entered or entering data in particular pattern in EditText. To freeze such requirement with quickest solution, I have written Custom EditText Locker. One can use this class file along with two lines of code in Main activity to suffice the purpose. If needed more patterns of accepting data in EditText can be added to same class file to make it more generic. For example to make custom locker I have added two EditTexts one which accepts any character with limit of 4 and another EditText which accepts decimal number with only two digits after fraction.
Read More About Android EditText.

Transform Fuel Filling Experience With On-Demand Fuel Delivery App

Consistent growth in technology and innovations has automated a lot of things around us. Vehicle booking, hotels, food ordering, appliance installation, we are surrounded by on-demand apps. One such innovation in the on-demand economy is fuel delivery app. The application conveniently delivers fuel at your doorstep and saves a run to the gas station before leaving for your destination.
The growth in on-demand economy, has taken the app store by storm, with numerous on-demand apps focused on various services. On-demand fuel app, or say Uber for Gas is another similar technological innovation in the industry. With the uberification in every field, including automobile, retail, media, hospitality, the market is witnessing a surge in demand for the development of fuel delivery app.
Here is a detailed insight into the concept of on-demand fuel delivery service.

What Is On-demand Fuel Delivery?

With a fuel delivery app, customers can get tanks of their vehicles filled and make their commute hassle-free. By using on-demand fuel delivery app, they can place an order, and the supply of the fuel will reach their mentioned locations within the estimated time. The customers need to register their details in the app, share location and request fuel requirements. The driver version of the app will help fuel truck drivers navigate to the mentioned location and refill your vehicle. This on-demand service has revolutionized the fuel filling process, by eliminating the drive to the gas station and  waiting in long queues to refuel their vehicles. Now they get their vehicles refueled at their convenience.

What Are The Challenges Associated With On-demand Fuel Delivery?

With the rise in population across the globe and increasing spending ability, there has been a surge in the purchase of vehicles. This, as a result has boosted the requirement of on-demand fuel delivery. Many companies are now taking an interest and are willing to invest in the on-demand fuel delivery service/app. However, like every other industry, this one also comes with its own set of drawbacks. There are some major challenges that an on-demand fuel delivery service often faces. Some of these are:

• Overcrowded Market

  As there are numerous companies investing in on-demand fuel delivery market, it has become quite difficult to recognize the ones with genuinely innovative ideas and then try to transform those ideas into reality. 

• Lack of Safety

  Raised by the authority, safety issues often put the fuel delivery service providers in a difficult spot. Lack of good quality tanks, proper security systems for limiting unauthorized entry and the right safety systems for saving the tanks during an accidental fire are the major safety concerns in the industry.

Essential Features of On-demand Fuel Delivery App

1 Easy Registration

This feature enables app users to register themselves via creating a personal account, or through social media accounts or mail id. From their own accounts, they can place an order, make payments and go through the earlier transactions, orders, and payments.

2 Check Pricing

This feature allows users to check current prices of various types of fuels like petrol, diesel, gas, etc. and make payments accordingly.

3 Payment Options

Users can pay for fuel through multiple and secure payment options, such as debit or credit card payment, net banking, cash, e-wallets, etc.
Read More About On-demand Fuel Delivery.

Micromobility: The Next Wave Of Eco-Friendly Transportation

You must have seen people traveling on e-bikes and e-scooters in cities like California and New York. If you are wondering about this new trend, it’s called micromobility and aims to solve the transportation problems of urban spaces and cities.
Micromobility generally refers to short commutes of less than 5 miles and vehicles that don’t go beyond 15 miles/hour. The scooters and bikes use clean energy like rechargeable batteries to fight climate change and provide a sustainable means of transport.
The micromobility market is expected to grow to $300 billion by 2030 in the USA alone. In fact, Micromobility startups have already pumped in $5.7 billion into the industry and looking to capture new cities and urban spaces around the world.
Today, we will explore the trend, its advantages, challenges and the future of micromobility.

The Factors Behind the Growth of Micromobility

Micromobility is gradually becoming popular across the world for its convenience an environment friendliness. Let’s go over some factors which have directly contributed to the growth of micromobility.

• Last Mile Transport

  The last mile transport has always remained a challenge for urban spaces. City planners have long debated what to adopt to provide a cost-effective means of short transportation. Shared Mobility has emerged as one of the cheapest and fastest ways of reaching from point A to point B. In fact, in USA, 60% of all trips are 5 miles or less- providing a great opportunity for the growth of micromobility.

• Cheaper Mode of Travel

  It takes only a few dollars to ride e-bikes or e-scooters. The charges are much lesser compared to cabs and traditional transportation modes. So cheap rates is also a growth factor for micromobility.

Challenges of Micromobility

Even though micromobility is a growing trend, it has its share of challenges. Some of the challenges are related to the infrastructure of the city, while others deal with regulations and theft. Let’s explore some micromobility challenges in brief-

• Infrastructure of City

  You need proper infrastructure in cities to introduce micromobility. If a city doesn’t have requirements like bike lanes or parking spaces, the adoption of micromobility becomes difficult. That’s why the adoption of micromobility is low in poor and developing countries. We need proper infrastructure so that people can travel safely without the fear of accidents or injuries. The perception towards micromobility also varies from one country to another. For example, in USA, 70% people living in urban areas view micromobility favorably. That is also the reason behind the widespread adoption of e-bikes and e-scooters across North and South America.  On the other hand, countries like Africa have negative perceptions towards cycling. Africans view cycling as past time of the elites or transportation of the poor. For this reason, cycling only makes up 0.2% of all trips in cities like Johannesburg. We need to change the mindset of people to encourage alternative transportation. 

Read More About Micromobility.

How Can Uber Freight Like Apps Benefit The Trucking Industry?

Let’s accept this painful fact that managing a trucking company is messy and inefficient. Most trucking owners still manage their operations using multiple phone calls and heavy paperwork resulting in complex workflows, poor business performance, and lower profits. There are numerous other challenges that the trucking businesses face today that we will discuss in more detail in this article.
As a testament to this very fact that trucking industry is still living in the dark ages and needs a technology overhaul, Uber recently launched a trucking app called Uber Freight in the US that aims to seamlessly connect trucking companies and their drivers with shippers on tap of a button. Uber is not the first company to launch a trucking app. Startups like Cargomatic and Convoy in the U.S have already made a splash to transform the trucking and logistics operations. However, the entry of Uber is pretty significant for the entire industry.
Just like Uber for taxi apps, we are confident that the launch of Uber Freight app will spur demand for a new category of apps in the market popularly known as “Uber For Trucking” apps.
Now let’s dive deeper into some of the serious challenges faced by the trucking and freight industry and how adopting Uber for trucking apps can solve them.

Challenges Faced By The Trucking Industry

• Cumbersome operations
  Trucking business owners or carriers can easily get overwhelmed by the number of tasks that they have to perform to get a shipment right. Taking new load orders, assigning them to the right drivers, ensuring timely deliveries, managing emergencies and what not. The majority of the businesses still use to and fro phone calls from brokers to get new business, wasting a lot of valuable time that can be allocated to other crucial business functions.
• Empty trucks – Lost revenue opportunities
  Underutilization of available load capacity is another serious challenge faced by the carriers. Trucks often move with less than target load and many return fully empty on their return leg of their trip, basically burning much higher fuel per unit load. Getting freight trucks to be fully loaded on return trips has become a hefty task which if properly executed can unlock new revenue opportunities and better resource utilization overall.
• High brokerage fees
  The middleman or the broker in the trucking industry usually takes hefty commission fees for bringing new business. Because of the heavy dependence of carriers on these brokers for getting them new shipment requests, they usually agree to their demands resulting in lower profit margins or higher shipping costs for customers if they decide to put the load on them. There are many industries which can do better with a digital marketplace and the trucking industry is surely in need of one.

Benefits of an Uber Freight Like App For The Trucking Industry

A trucking business has three key stakeholders. The carriers or the trucking business owners, the drivers and finally the customers. Let’s see how an Uber for trucking platform can benefit everybody.

Benefits For Carriers

• A smarter middle man to work with
  No more wasting time taking phone calls from brokers. No more haggling over commission rates. Carriers get a digital mobile channel to receive new load requests from their customers and automatically or manually assign them to the write driver. Everything can be managed through a browser-based admin panel, simplifying workflows and overall making lives much simpler for business owners.

Benefits For Drivers

• Get new requests from an app
  Drivers get a dedicated app to get new load pickup and drop requests from their owners or carriers. This gives them much more flexibility and simplicity. They get a new request, have the choice to accept or reject and get on the trip as per the schedule. No frills experience.

Benefits For Shippers

• Seamless bookings

Shippers get an intuitive mobile app to easily schedule a shipment booking providing necessary details like pickup, drop, load weight and additional instructions. They get upfront fares or can request a quote. Bookings for immediate needs or bulk bookings are also possible.
Read More About Uber Freight Like Apps. 

Drone Delivery Services: The Future of Transportation & Logistics?

The mass adoption of the internet and the rise of an on-demand economy has increased the need for fast and affordable delivery services. We need things delivered to our doorstep whether it is online shopping, booking tickets, buying food, getting parcels or ordering groceries. Companies are investing heavily in innovation and technology to make the last mile delivery more efficient and cost-effective.
Technological advances have made it possible for drones to be an alternative for traditional delivery services. It can work without human intervention, cut down costs, and deliver products in a matter of hours.
Today we will explore the future of drones and logistics finding out how they can be used for every day delivery.

How Do Drones Help?

Drone is a small aircraft which can be flown without the need of a human pilot. Generally, drones have several fans similar to helicopters which enable it to fly. Drones can carry small objects and items such as cameras which can collect visual information. Currently, many companies are working on drones which can carry other objects with increased loads and higher speeds.
Drones are also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and can be controlled through remote control by a pilot on the ground or through autonomous ways. Drones have been used by the military for surveillance and carrying out operations. They also had some civil applications such as firefighting, policing and security work.
The market of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) stood at $609 million in 2014 and predicted to reach $4.8 billion by 2021. A huge number of applications for drones are on the horizon such as geographical and land mapping, monitoring of fuel and power lines, package delivery, agricultural uses and so on.

Factors and Motivation Behind Drone for Delivery

Drones can provide a lot of advantages over traditional means of transport and ground based delivery. The most crucial factor is the reduced cost of operation and easy management. You don’t need a truck or delivery van and can save the fuel costs. Also, There is no need to pay the driver as drones can be automated to avoid obstacles and fly on their own.
You can safely transport packages weighing 5 pounds at speeds of 100 miles per hour with ease.
Drones don’t have to be stuck in traffic jams or take detours when roads are blocked. They can fly over jungles, rivers, hills and mountains where trucks or other vehicles cannot operate. Drones can also fly straight taking a shorter route and achieve quicker delivery times. Instead of same day shipping, retailers can send products to customers in a matter of hours.
Drones can also make the delivery process efficient and precise. They can track a location automatically through GPS and zip away to make a perfect drop. You can achieve pinpoint accuracy in all of your deliveries for optimum results.

Independent Companies Offering Drone Delivery Services

We may find independent companies and startups offering drone delivery systems to customers and businesses. You may even find Uber for drone services where you can book a drone using your smartphone!
It may also be possible to lease drones as Matternet is considering a subscription based approach.
Read More About Drone Delivery Services.

Warehouse Management System – Role and Functions in Logistics Chain

Warehouse Management System (WMS) is the cornerstone of the logistics system. A WMS constitutes an internal system of the logistics companies, which is highly configurable to control and manage aspects of storage, distribution, others. A robust WMS is what an organization needs for efficient and productive operations, which includes inventory balance, manage materials, pickup process and auditing.
If you are lacking an effective WMS, then it is impossible to achieve an extraordinary functioning logistic system. An effective WMS involves using a customized set of solutions for smooth workflow and not just the data or storage handling procedure.

Importance of WMS

Warehouse management process is important to meet the most primary business objective, which is to keep the operations cost low as possible and maximize the profit margin.
Read on to know why warehousing and logistics is important for your business –
1. Inventory Control and Management
The common challenge of most businesses is to maintain the accuracy of the inventory. An effective WMS will help you manage the inventory in a fast, easy, and efficient way. You can improve the accuracy of the inventory by decreasing the order cycle time and improve the order fulfillment. WMS will help you decrease the inventory level by tracking every aspect of the inventory using real-time information.
Not only you will have better knowledge of what is in the warehouse but you can also better track any changes required. You can better serve your clients as WMS facilitates quick response to customers’ demands and queries.
2. Centralized Location
A warehouse management system saves huge time and cost by getting a centralized storage location. Storage, shipping and distribution are much easy if you have a centralized location as you can overcome the production gap. Not only you can be in quick reach of your supplier but also the target market. So, you can have a continuous flow of goods in and out which determines the firm’s logistics supply chain system.
The centralized location of logistic warehousing gives you the opportunity to have security stocking. It means you can fulfill customer’s orders on time and deliver the right product at the right time.
3. Improve Production Quality
Your production quality will improve by effective inventory quality and management. You can stay up to date with your vendor, suppliers and better track the raw materials or product shelf life. So, you are just not monitoring the quantities but the entire production process. It is now easier to get rid of defective products and ensure a high quality finished goods.
By improving the quality of the goods, you can not only ensure high-quality services but improved order processing as well. Isn’t it great that an effective warehouse management process will give you improved production quality? By improving production quality, you can also maximize the company productivity as WMS boosts speed, efficiency, and quality control.
4. Leverage Seasonal Growth
You can take utmost advantage of the festive and other shopping seasons to scale your operations. Since it is easy to track the entire production process with real-time information, you can also monitor consumer behavior during peak season. The tracking system will help you better handle client problems and deliver high-quality customer service. Warehousing and logistics ensure easy tracking of the shipment through automation and real-time information.
It means you can have better accuracy and reduce customer complaints by creating availability of what they need. So, you can leverage the seasonal growth and boost your operations without additional cost. It means you are gaining new opportunities to hit the high sales number. By having right warehouse management systems, you can now sell faster and boost profit which means the high return of investment.
5. Risk Management
Warehouse management system is important to handle the fluctuations in demand and supply and avoid losses. Handle risks with the help of real-time information on an increase or decrease in the demand of the product. Make the selling decisions considering the violent rise or fall in prices.
Improve the purchasing decisions as you determine the right time to replenish the stock. So, you can always keep your stock in check and better meet the needs of seasonal products. Logistic warehousing also gives you the opportunity to have additional storage in anticipation of future demand.
Effective WMS ensures improved inventory control and management, which means you can ensure the safety of the goods, avoid product spoilage or theft or an accident.
However, there is a need to choose effective software solutions for which you must consider key features of Warehousing and logistics.

Key Features of WMS

-Warehouse Designing
Logistic warehousing ensures additional storage and optimized inventory allocation. You can customize not only the workflow but also handle any variations in seasonal inventory.
-Real-Time Capabilities
It is essential for a business to obtain real-time information, which mandates an advanced warehouse management system. To enable real-time inventory processing and improved accuracy you can leverage integrated hardware and software programs.
-Picking Process
Warehouse management system process has a huge influence on the supply chain’s productivity and is because of the order picking an element. Warehouse workers can better perform the pick-and-pack tasks by wave picking, zone picking, batch picking, and other functions. Packaging is much more comfortable now as the modern 3Pl logistic companies can package all our products if you are selling the same products to different customers under the same brand.

How to Choose the Correct WMS for your Logistics Business?

o choose the correct WMS for your logistics business, you may consider the following ways –
● Look for Function and Simplicity
When choosing your logistic warehousing, you must assess how good it will function for your business. Look for the potentiality of the features to make your operations efficient by reducing the manual workload. It is crucial for you to have all the warehouse processes well-streamlined and ensure equipment automation to make tasks less difficult for the employees.
● Flexible Solutions
For small-scale businesses, flexibility is the prime factor for growth and success. If the system is not adjustable and scalable, there will be a need to adopt new warehouse systems when your business expands frequently. Flexible solutions will allow you to give high-quality customer service and eliminate the complaints.
● Decide on the Process
Warehouse management process is highly configurable and must be able to work in any warehouse environment. You must look if WMS vendors provide responsive ITT templates or if they are slanted towards their products or limited in functionality. You must analyze your existing WMS system so that you can choose another system with same due diligence. Understanding your existing warehouse and logistics is essential so that you can recognize the shortfalls in functionality when choosing the new system.
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Healthcare Consumerism: What Is It And How Does It Affect Healthcare?

The healthcare industry is emerging with an unprecedented level of transformation. The rise of consumerism is one of the key reasons behind the evolution of healthcare sector. Consumerism plays a crucial role in the healthcare business by encouraging patients to become true consumers of healthcare. Resultantly, the healthcare industry is now evolving from sick-care industry to a consumer-driven industry where consumers are actively involved in their health decisions. 

Today’s patients have more capital at stake, more options to make decisions, and more knowledge to consider than ever before. Patients are now aware of their consumer rights and thus, are capable of making the best decisions for their health, considering the quality and cost of healthcare services like they do with other commodities.

The three key factors driving the patient towards healthcare decision making are – the emergence of health insurance products; the evolution of private and public insurance exchanges; and the propagation of websites and tools offering transparency into price and quality.

Now, healthcare providers are expected to give more details to the consumers in the market. Patients are more attentive while choosing health services and are more aware of medical billing, multiple healthcare technologies, and payment systems. So, they approach for medical treatments with great concern and look for services and tools that are synced according to their health and lifestyle. 

Both healthcare providers and consumers play an essential role in healthcare consumerism as patients expect reliable products, high-quality services, and better experience from the healthcare providers. When consumers spend on healthcare treatments, they preferably search for healthcare providers catering easy to use and reliable billing and payment systems. Therefore, healthcare consumers and patients hold complete control over how and where their money gets spent. 

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Warehouse Management System – Role and Functions in Logistics Chain

Warehouse Management System (WMS) is the cornerstone of the logistics system. A WMS constitutes an internal system of the logistics companies, which is highly configurable to control and manage aspects of storage, distribution, others. A robust WMS is what an organization needs for efficient and productive operations, which includes inventory balance, manage materials, pickup process and auditing.

If you are lacking an effective WMS, then it is impossible to achieve an extraordinary functioning logistic system. An effective WMS involves using a customized set of solutions for smooth workflow and not just the data or storage handling procedure.

Importance of WMS

Warehouse management process is important to meet the most primary business objective, which is to keep the operations cost low as possible and maximize the profit margin.

Read on to know why warehousing and logistics is important for your business –

1. Inventory Control and Management

The common challenge of most businesses is to maintain the accuracy of the inventory. An effective WMS will help you manage the inventory in a fast, easy, and efficient way. You can improve the accuracy of the inventory by decreasing the order cycle time and improve the order fulfillment. WMS will help you decrease the inventory level by tracking every aspect of the inventory using real-time information.

Not only you will have better knowledge of what is in the warehouse but you can also better track any changes required. You can better serve your clients as WMS facilitates quick response to customers’ demands and queries.

2. Centralized LocationA warehouse management system saves huge time and cost by getting a centralized storage location. Storage, shipping and distribution are much easy if you have a centralized location as you can overcome the production gap. Not only you can be in quick reach of your supplier but also the target market. So, you can have a continuous flow of goods in and out which determines the firm’s logistics supply chain system.

 The centralized location of logistic warehousing gives you the opportunity to have security stocking. It means you can fulfill customer’s orders on time and deliver the right product at the right time.

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Healthcare Payer Services Market Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2018-2023

These efforts were well-rewarded as hospital spendings dropped to their lowest values in the past two years. This was mainly possible because of the introduction of newer policies, commissioning of cheaper care locations, and designing healthcare plans such that the cost of utilization was borne by healthcare members. Value-based contracts have replaced fee-for-service payments, significantly minimizing costs.

With the expected implementation of greater cost-efficient measures and value-based contracting, the five inevitable payer trends of 2019 are as follows:

What is The Basic Concept of Payer Service?

Healthcare payers providers outsource a number of services which are known as healthcare payer services. Prioritizing a better quality of patient care while keeping the mutable environment of the sector in mind, payers may reconsider their business structure and processes to compete in the market. Enhancing customer communication, and streamlining the process are some of the major concerns of healthcare payers. To overcome these impediments, the services are outsourced to healthcare payer solution providers.

The pressure of cutting costs and the continuous inflow of healthcare payer service providers entering the market are expected to be the reasons for the future growth of the payer services market. In-house payer service costs far more than outsourcing these to an external vendor. The steady growth of the customer base is largely due to technological advancements in healthcare, utilization of analytics, and the continually growing number who are opting for healthcare insurance. This development may provide an essential boost to the market in the forecast period.

On the flip side, factors like cybertheft and hidden costs associated with outsourcing might hamper the market growth of healthcare payer service during the forecasted period.

The market for healthcare payer services is divided on the basis of application, end-user, geography, and service offering.

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Fee-For-Value Over Fee-For-Service: Transition from Cost to Care

The American health industry has recently shifted from a fee-for-service (FFS) model to the payment model that reimburses and rewards physicians for taking a holistic approach to care. The new reimbursement model is known as “value-based care” or “free-for-value.” It aims to eliminate the FSS model which involves charging the insurers and patients solely on the number of procedures or treatments performed.

Value-Based Care Vs Fee-For-Service—what are the key differences in each of these systems? What is the origin of value-based care? The aim of this post is to help the US healthcare professionals, medical coders, and billers to know everything about the two models with the transition in full swing.

What Is Value-Based Care?

American healthcare professionals are reimbursed with incentives/ payments for taking a holistic approach to care at a low cost. This system is known as the value-based care system in the US, which demands that clinicians use best practices while treating patients. This payment model compels the doctors to prioritize the quality of care provided to patients. In this philosophy of care, doctors focus on the quality, efficiency, and overall outcome of care and are paid accordingly.

When successful, the paying for performance further motivates the healthcare team to intentionally consider providing quality care at a low cost and to improve the patient’s healthcare outcomes. Thus, the value-based care model encourages effective coordination and communication among physicians across specialties.

What Is Fee-for-service?

Fee-for-service or FFS is the healthcare payment model where physicians and clinicians are paid based on the number of services, treatments, and procedures that they provide to patients. In this healthcare model, medical professionals are compensated by government agencies and insurance companies every time patients have appointments/surgical consultations/hospital stays. Healthcare professionals are reimbursed regardless of whether the outcome of the test or procedures is positive or negative. FFS is the traditional payment model that unbundles the medical services involved to pay separately for each service availed.

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What Is Interoperability and Why Is It Important in Healthcare?

The ability to communicate and adequately share patient information through different IT channels has gained undeniable importance in the current medical industry. Providing support in breaking organizational barriers, interoperability can help in adding value to healthcare. It can provide better outcomes for patients along with a host of other benefits for healthcare providers.

With serious untapped potential, interoperability is one of the most underutilized concepts in the healthcare structure of the world. Eliminating room for error and making healthcare dynamics more dependable is what needs to be stressed on. With the healthcare industry becoming more complex and diverse each day, there is a need for an appropriate management system to simplify things for the people involved. This includes everyone, right from the lesser-educated patient who may be unfamiliar with medical terminology to the doctor who struggles to find the time to look for a patient’s previous records.

What Is Interoperability in Healthcare? The Relationship between Health Data and Health IT Interoperability

Interoperability in healthcare is what a summary of a book is for a reader. It compiles the entire information and presents it in a crisp, simplified, and understandable way. Similarly, interoperability is the process of gathering patient information from multiple databases and presenting it to the healthcare provider. This makes it easier for them to access the patient’s medical history and condition.

Health information exchange needs to be seamless; it is divided into several crucial steps like procuring, sending, receiving, and assimilating. If any of these steps is not considered adequately or missed, the healthcare provided to the patient, and the productivity of the healthcare providers may get affected.

Surveys reveal that transfer of information is more manageable than receiving and integrating it. The sizes of healthcare-providing organizations differ and so do their channels of data-based information. It means that while information may be available on cloud storage, it may be of little or no use to a rural healthcare provider because they won’t be able to retrieve it promptly. This raises the need for uniformity across all channels of healthcare database management through different organizational sizes and types. Streamlining it might enable a similar standard of healthcare in a rural clinic as a cosmopolitan hospital.

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What Is Health Information System (HIS) & Its Importance?

Technological advancement has brought evolution in every sector, making the management process speedy and seamless, serving more people worldwide. The healthcare sector is no exception. The arena of healthcare informatics, combined with healthcare data, information technology, and business, has gained a huge boost from technology. Health Information System (HIS) is such a technological boon for the health industry, helping the management of healthcare data with utter efficiency. The implementation of this system helps in improving the quality of patient care, reducing operational cost, making administration data error-free and shaping the entire internal management process more organized. 

If you are new to this industry, this post will help you understand the important features of HIS, what benefits you can get from HIS and how it can make your business activities seamless and profitable. So, without further ado, let’s start the discussion. 

Benefits of Health Information System

• Organized & Coordinated Treatment Process

Health Information System is a technology-driven system that makes the process of sharing protected health information (PHI) between organizations and providers really hassle-free. Also, because of this system, patients are able to get seamless and coordinated treatment from healthcare providers. Especially, the patients whose diagnoses need cross-specialty treatment coordination and substantial medical information management get the maximum benefits from HIS. And above all, it improves the delivery of the care and outcomes of the patients.

• Improved Patient Safety

As you get easy access to patients’ data with the help of Health Information Systems, you can save all the information and share across multiple databases to improve the safety of the patients. Even you can get alert notification whenever there are any issues related to patients’ health. For example, the healthcare providers can receive an alert from program security checking about the harmful effects patients may experience on any particular medicine if they have that without being prescribed. This way you can avoid committing any serious mistake that happens due to the lack of details available during making the decisions.

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Transform Fuel Filling Experience With On-Demand Fuel Delivery App

Consistent growth in technology and innovations has automated a lot of things around us. Vehicle booking, hotels, food ordering, appliance installation, we are surrounded by on-demand apps. One such innovation in the on-demand economy is fuel delivery app. The application conveniently delivers fuel at your doorstep and saves a run to the gas station before leaving for your destination.

The growth in on-demand economy, has taken the app store by storm, with numerous on-demand apps focused on various services. On-demand fuel app, or say Uber for Gas is another similar technological innovation in the industry. With the uberification in every field, including automobile, retail, media, hospitality, the market is witnessing a surge in demand for the development of fuel delivery app.

Here is a detailed insight into the concept of on-demand fuel delivery service.

What Is On-demand Fuel Delivery?

With a fuel delivery app, customers can get tanks of their vehicles filled and make their commute hassle-free. By using on-demand fuel delivery app, they can place an order, and the supply of the fuel will reach their mentioned locations within the estimated time. The customers need to register their details in the app, share location and request fuel requirements. The driver version of the app will help fuel truck drivers navigate to the mentioned location and refill your vehicle. This on-demand service has revolutionized the fuel filling process, by eliminating the drive to the gas station and  waiting in long queues to refuel their vehicles. Now they get their vehicles refueled at their convenience. 

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How Artificial Intelligence Chatbots are Revolutionizing Healthcare

The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life,” said Bill Gates while referring to the power of technology. This stands utterly accurate for advancements such as Artificial Intelligence enabled Chatbots, which foreshadow the future of technological advancements to come.

Artificial Intelligence, also referred to as Machine Intelligence, is an intricate innovation smoothly gearing up to revolutionize our lives forever. The stimulation of human intelligence using contemporary computers that imitates cognitive functions is changing the ways of problem-solving. And with cutting-edge disciplines such as AI and Chatbots, researchers are leading the way to a great transformation. Apart from all other ways of demonstrating an impact, the role of AI in healthcare industry is particularly ground-breaking.

Introduction of AI in Healthcare Industry

In recent times, the discussion has moved to a point where AI doctors replacing General Physicians in the future is not startling any more. Even though the switch may not happen in the near future, AI in healthcare industry is definitely going to be assisting General Physicians to make an evolved diagnosis. There will soon be a time when the dependency on the human mind in the healthcare industry will decline from its current percentage. So, it is about time, we recognize and appreciate the benefits of AI Chatbots to the healthcare industry.

The super-responsive AI enabled Chatbots are presenting us with an option of a computerized medical professional with human-like conversational skills. It is not just revolutionary; it is a paradigm shift.

In the process of understanding the employment of this technology and its implications, we are sketching below a comprehensive study on how AI Chatbots are revolutionizing healthcare.

Role of Chatbots and AI in Healthcare

So, what is a Chatbot? And how exactly Chatbots and healthcare can be combined to save lives? Let’s understand.

A chatbot is a type of web-robotic application powered by AI that helps in running automated commands on the internet. As the name suggests, these internet bots are primarily used as communication tools and facilitate automated conversation by way of audio or textual messaging. Instead of depending on conversing with an individual, Chatbots provide assistance in communicating between two sides with automated scripts. With low doctor-patient ratios all around the world, particularly in under-developed and developing nations, Chatbots are pitched to play a major role in basic healthcare.

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