Parija Rangnekar – Page 17

Gone are the days when one had to wait in long queues for buying groceries and ordering food; or encounter hassles while booking a cab. These tasks can now be accomplished effortlessly by a few taps in smartphones. This disruptive transformation has been caused by none other than on-demand applications.

On-demand apps have challenged conventional practices and successfully redefined the functioning of diverse industry verticals. Thanks to technological innovations, on-demand applications are getting smarter. As such, their popularity is sky-rocketing and they are spreading in the online marketplace like wildfire.

Owing to their unique way of providing top-quality services to customers and ensuring prompt delivery at the same time, on-demand app solutions are gradually becoming a crucial component of diverse business enterprises. The world’s leading organizations like Uber and GrubHub started their business processes via on-demand mobile apps. Consequently, businesses are considering the option of partnering with an on-demand app development company for crafting ingenious apps to maximize profitability. So, this article throws light on how on-demand applications are transforming the business landscape.

But, before we dive deeper, let me enlighten you about on-demand apps.

What are On-demand Applications?

On-demand apps directly link consumers to various businesses. How? These apps enable customers to acquire products and services on utility and entertainment; with just a few clicks on their smartphones. On-demand app-based services cover a wide range of functions like buying commodities, ordering food, renting a cab, attaining healthcare services, booking laundry service, etc. Therefore, most businesses are harnessing the potential of on-demand mobile app development to establish their digital footprints and expand their customer base.

Top Industry Verticals Leveraging On-demand App Development Services

Take a look at some of the most transformative on-demand app solutions!

Fintech

Payix renders collection tools, business intelligence (BI) solutions, and payment processing resources to auto dealers and lenders.

Healthcare

Phlex65 empowers the seniors by connecting them directly with licensed caregivers in the area, for services such as cooking, light housekeeping, assistance with bathing and other activities, in a real-time digital environment. Users can view caregiver list and book their services. They can even extend an ongoing appointment. They can chat with the caregivers with predefined messages.

HiTech

An on-demand workforce management solution, Shiftgig, enables businesses to find niche workers, manage budgets, schedules, etc.

Retail

Using Instacart consumers can choose from, compare several options, explore sale offers, and read labels digitally and then reap the benefits of on-demand mobile app development by getting the selected products delivered to their doorstep.

Advantages and Uniqueness of On-demand App Solutions

Strengthens Online presence

For businesses intending to create or strengthen their online presence, there is no better way than developing an on-demand app. Website promotions have become commonplace but possessing a mobile app is the most competent strategy to make your digital presence felt.

Fetches Unlimited Business Opportunities

On-demand apps enable businesses to gather on-table information about their users — address, contact number, email ID, preferences, interests, and all other data that matters. This data serves various purposes like as below:

Marketing products or services through direct e-mails.
Notifying consumers about offers, deals, etc.
Establishing a direct connection with customers and providing them personalized support.
Analyzing user-activity to identify the most and least popular services/products; and planning or modifying strategies accordingly.
Promoting the business-customer relationship to boost brand value.

These amazing moves work wonders to convert and retain customers.

Shuns Conventional Approaches

Modern users have shunned conventional approaches and embraced on-demand services like online food delivery, shopping, etc. because of their convenience quotient and the advantage of receiving a personalized service experience. The on-demand app industry is catering to this customer requirement at affordable rates.

Enhanced Scalability and Improved Security Standards

On-demand applications can be scaled quickly as per the customer’s preference. This means that these apps can be effortlessly modified for accessing new products, adapting to changing market conditions, etc. And, as customer demands are ever-changing; on-demand apps enjoy a competitive advantage as compared to other mobile apps built for Windows, Android, and iOS.

In terms of security, too, on-demand apps are a safe bet as they offer secured payment options for consumers.

Minimizes Customer service calls

New-age customers prefer online activity instead of making calls to the customer help desk. Hence, developing an on-demand solution that is user-friendly, and comes with easy-to-use features, will minimize the requirement for customer service representatives. Furthermore, as customers have a low attention span; they love effortless executions like single-click ordering, booking, or scheduling. This facility can be provided via on-demand app solutions..

Provides Flexibility

An entrepreneur has the flexibility to offer free app usage initially and start integrating monetizing options like in-app purchases, as the app garners popularity.

Cost-effective

A customized on-demand application helps to reduce overhead costs. How?

An app simplifies business processes and makes them customer-friendly as well.
The app turns out to be a powerful promotional tool as it can be used to spread awareness about offers and discounts.
It becomes easy to run loyalty programs using applications.

All these online promotional activities are executed at a lower cost as compared to traditional promotional means.

Flexible Working hours and Enhanced Employee Satisfaction

The rising demand curve for on-demand app solutions has led to enterprises employing more employees. Besides, they enjoy flexible working hours, and as such can streamline their working hours to engage in different jobs. This flexibility and freedom have raised employee satisfaction as well as efficiency; resulting in greater profits for businesses.

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Concluding Lines

On-demand apps not only prove convenient to users but also elevate engagement, thereby resulting in higher ROI for businesses. This disruptive approach awaits a bright future ahead. The current market of the on-demand business is quite promising and so every business must consider hiring on-demand app development services for elevating profit margins.

If you would like to develop a professional on-demand app, contact Biz4Solutions, a leading on-demand app development service providing firm. We have rich experience in crafting successful on-demand apps for global clients. We provide proficient app developers for startups as well as large enterprises.

Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of personal as well as corporate events got canceled or postponed, affecting numerous businesses. But then, virtual event applications came into the picture and countless events were conducted through these apps for carrying out personal as well as corporate events. Due to this, several apps got outstanding attention, which were not even known to the masses, and their downloading spiked.

Downloads of video conferencing applications were recorded to be 62 million, just in a single week of March 2020, after the pandemic, according to TechCrunch, the renowned online newspaper for technology news. Since then, a plethora of virtual event apps have been fabricated and the face of online conferencing or virtual event industry has changed forever.

Today, most of the event app development services that has adapted to this online trend are making immense profits from the apps. So, in this blog post, we have shed light on the fundamental steps to create such a next-gen virtual event application. We have also talked about how they prove advantageous to diverse businesses, and their significant features. Let’s commence.

Virtual Event Apps and Their Potential Advantages

What is a virtual event? Well, the events that are hosted online allowing the participants to participate or view the event from any corner of the world are known to be virtual events. These can be webinars, virtual conferences, internal or external hybrid events, etc. Such digital events have some agenda and are usually expected to be collaborative sessions and are streamed online.

Such digital events are hosted using live-streaming platforms called virtual event apps; where live streaming is the essential functionality of these apps. Zoom, Webex, Google Meet, Vimeo, Digitell, GoToMeeting, Intrado, Evia, etc. are a few popular platforms/apps being extensively used.

Safety and Security of All – During the pandemic, online event apps ensure the health and safety of the participants, event organizers, and all the involved staff, as there is no physical meeting between people and hence social distancing norms are maintained.
Better Opportunities – All the details like the number of tickets sold out for events, related email marketing reports, etc. are available on a single application. Besides, the participants can access the pre-recorded events, as per their will and availability. Also, they can chat with other users during live events to build business relationships. Such benefits offer extended opportunities to both- app owners as well as participants.
Budget-friendly – The app owners need to bear only the initial cost of development of the virtual event platform, unlike the offline events. In offline events, the event planners have to consider a host of other costs like the cost of expensive equipments, location, travel expenses, accommodation for participants, lodging, etc. Thus, with virtual apps, the cost of events is drastically reduced making the events much budget-friendly.
Flexibility and Scalability – Whether a simple sales kickoff meeting, or a thought leadership meeting, or any event for that matter, all types of events can be flexibly hosted using these platforms. Options in multiple languages are also available for inviting guest speakers. Furthermore, users all across the globe can instantly join the meeting at the same time.
Easier Networking – Participants don’t have to go to a particular place to meet new people. Online chatting options make things much easier. Besides, they can conveniently collect details like the name, profiles, companies, etc. of other professionals in the meeting.
Feedback Collection and Result Analysis – Virtual event apps allow the participants to provide feedback easily through polls or real-time sessions. This feedback will help in the evaluation of the overall performance of the event, allowing the owners to make future improvements. Also, the insightful data generated using these apps are quite useful for result analysis. Such apps can track data like the number of participants, the timing when they logged in, what amount they paid and how etc.

Top Features of Virtual Event Apps

Event registration
Profile creation of the users
Event page for details like event topic, date and time of the event, host details, etc.
Speaker booths for multiple speakers to create their profiles and related details
Facility to record live sessions and meetings
Real-time chatting, one-to-one, and group chatting options
Live video streaming option
Payment options via PayPal, Google Pay, or credit/debit cards, etc.
Social media integration for sharing event-related data with other contacts
Integrations like sales tools, email marketing, etc.
Report generation and analysis
Other features like screen sharing, virtual hand raising, mute participants, polls, etc.

Steps to Architect a Virtual Event Application

Here are the crucial steps required for the creation of an online conference app:

Development of Backend: In the initial development stages itself, build a server for running the application. It is always advisable to create the server from scratch rather than making use of any ready-made technologies.

Designing User Interface: UI marks the first impressions for your virtual conferencing application and hence, it is of utmost importance to thoughtfully design a captivating and intuitive UI.

Android and iOS Compatibility: If you want to reach a wider audience range, it is essential that your app runs on both- Android and iOS devices. For ensuring that your video streaming app supports Android, make use of WebRTC and for iOS, use Swift.

Next, let us look into the two most important aspects during the development of virtual event app- cloud network and video architecture.

Cloud Network

The virtual conferencing applications come with an integrated data center infrastructure that is strictly supervised, tracked, and regularly modified by the development teams. This cloud network is created for providing global connectivity and for enabling users from all across the globe to connect and participate seamlessly. For example, Zoom has more than 15 data centers globally which are going to be expanding in the coming years.

Video Architecture

Now, the app architecture should be optimized to meet the video requirements for which, four important features must be considered, as given below:

Distributed architecture: This architecture enables the participants to share meetings across the network and allows them to easily join meetings via private communication using the nearest data center. Using a distributed architecture rather than a centralized approach will offer the required scalability to the app so that thousands of viewers can simultaneously get a consistent video experience.
Multimedia Routing: This step offers the users with various streams of videos from other participants and also reduces the need for computers’ power and thus, makes the app a greatly scalable system.
Multi-bitrate Encoding: Every single stream can be altered to several resolutions besides stream routing. Due to this, the need to decode, encode and optimize the output is removed. This also allows the apps to provide video quality levels depending on the network capabilities and the system.
Service Application Layer: Higher quality of service application layer ensures optimized audio, video, and screen-sharing for every device and the available bandwidth for offering the best network-wide experience.

Are You Interested in Building a Top-Class Website or Mobile App?

Concluding Views

During the pandemic, most of the offline events are now being conducted online using the live-streaming event apps. It is very likely that in the future too, several events will be carried out online, owing to the benefits like cost and time-saving and the event app development industry will flourish more than ever. Needless to say, the need for creating live streaming apps will remain higher for years to come.

That’s it for now. Hope you enjoyed reading this post.

Do comment below or drop us a line for further assistance on building virtual events apps.

Parija Rangnekar, Page 17 Author

How are On-demand Apps Transforming the Face of Business?