Blogs

PHP 5 to PHP 7 migration

Jul 22, 2019

PHP 7 has been launched with exciting features and drastic performance improvement. There is a drop in memory consumption and many fatal errors are converted to exceptions....

Involvement of the IT Department in RPA Implementations

Jul 22, 2019

In any RPA project, apart from the development aspect, there are a high number of other tasks that need to be performed competently to ensure its success. Particularly during the project implementation phase, the IT department plays a crucial role by setting up the system for production....

Does your Event Marketing platform cater to these?

Mar 29, 2019

Event management and marketing has become insanely data driven in the past few years. In fact, all facets of events, be it sponsorship, marketing or organization, providing rich content to attendees (or participants) will become extremely beneficial as this industry matures. Collecting and securely saving data is the key for fut...

Intelligent RPA in Banks- Bet your bottom dollars

Mar 20, 2019

A slow economy, further stimulated by a do-more-with-less culture is compelling enterprises to introspect and devise methods to boost productivity. Financial functions are under significant pressure and within the BFSI sector, there is a continuous evolution due to high competition.Banks are under pressure toAll this lands us at...

Dynamics 365 Reporting and Dashboards for Manufacturing Organization

Mar 11, 2019

As a top management executive of a manufacturing organization, one of the key responsibilities is to make sure all of the business units or divisions are performing well i.e., right from the sales – delivery to support.Also, being in a manufacturing sector, given the amount of competition faced in today’s fast-paced world, the q...

Vagrant: Building stronger workflows in DevOps

Mar 05, 2019

In my previous post, I spoke about DevOps in 2019, and the surge that is expected in DevOps practices across the Software Development LifeCycle (SDLC). From here on, we will be taking different DevOps tools and environments which are expected to contribute the most towards the DevOps tool market in 2019.Servers are moving faster...

Latest trends in Event Management

Feb 26, 2019

Events are no longer seen as a cost component, but rather an opportunity to generate revenue, build brand awareness and long lasting relationships. This is a huge change in perspective, from a ‘white elephant’ to a ‘cash cow’, opening up doors for event marketing and management to bring in data sciences and prove their mettle.Br...

RPA in Collections/Accounts Receivable (AR)

Feb 05, 2019

For all the hype that Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has created in the IT industry, its penetration leaves a lot to be desired. It has been studied that, the collections process (also known as Accounts Receivable or AR), despite being an excellent candidate for automation, has an RPA penetration of less than 15%!The first ste...

DevOps in 2019: Tools & Best Practices

Jan 21, 2019

Improving the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) from design through development and production is essential for better applications and even better team performance. DevOps is a software engineering practice to improve the SDLC process from design through the development process to production support that unifies Software De...

RPA BoTs in Shipping & Logistics: A SWOT Analysis

Jan 07, 2019

Tectonic shifts in technology are a major challenge for any organisation. One such technology is Robotic Process Automation, more commonly known as RPA. Automation is an entry point for future cognitive transformation opportunities, handling repetitive and rule based tasks without human intervention.Shipping and logistics manage...

Does RPA kill jobs?

Dec 12, 2018

We are creatures of habit. We like our routines and are wary of change. When faced with the unknown, we often jump to conclusions, and most probably the worst of it. And, new technology has the unique capability to incite fear, a far and wide spread fear. Just take a look at the articles which come up for a generic RPA search &#...

Entity Framework – What and Why?

Dec 03, 2018

Entity Framework is an open source object relational model framework for the applications built on .NET. It facilitates the developers to work with data without looking into underlying database tables and columns where the data is stored. With Entity Framework in place, developers can now create and maintain data-oriented applic...

RPA in Warehouse Management

Nov 30, 2018

In today’s world, technology has been improved to a great extent, where many industries demand to be abreast with technology and its far reaching capabilities. A deep dive into warehouse management will show various processes, including sorting, packing, picking, storage, shipping, transportation, retrieval, etc., and in present...

ServiceNow London Release: New Features to Look Out For

Oct 15, 2018

Each ServiceNow release offers some major breakthroughs in the service industry operations and delivery efficiencies. There has been many speculations on the upcoming ServiceNow London version (scheduled to release in 3rd quarter-2018).Here we better understand the capabilities set to release with ServiceNow London and how it wi...

What is ServiceNow? – Manage anything IT!

Aug 03, 2018

With an insufficient domestic talent supply and the ‘doubling down’ by the Administration on its restrictive immigration policies, the ability to attract and recruit IT professionals in high demand skill sets who have many options will continue to be at a premium. – says TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts. Due to a h...

AI in Financial Analytics – The Machine Learning Engine

Aug 01, 2018

Cashflow planning, forecasting is done through state-of-the art algorithms and automated data discovery techniques that analyze your historical data, find patterns, outliers, anomalies, relationship between various variables.A machine learning driven engine gives you a precise vision on what will affect your Cash Flow position a...

Artificial Intelligence in Financial Analytics

Jul 21, 2018

Successful businesses care for extensive cash flow planning. Mature finance teams follow best practices, to review everything on a regular basis to see what actually happened versus what they said would happen. Being aligned with your payment terms for payables and receivables, or planning your cash needs for the next quarter o...

The Need for Speed in IT Recruiting

Jul 10, 2018

Is your IT recruitment in doldrums owing to a new power shift in job trends?If you believe you’re doing OK, think again. Hiring for information technology professionals has become more agile and strategic than ever before.Here’s why:According to U.S Department of Labor, employment in computer and information technology jobs will...

Chatbots – The new frontier in Artificial Intelligence driven Sales

May 09, 2018

Imagine on a weekend, a customer decides to buy a laptop; he has made a list of all features and technical specifications required. Next, he visits your website to check prices, but its Saturday late evening and ends up at a Contact form telling “we will get back you soon”. The customer was in a mindset to buy the product but no...

GDPR Compliance and Dynamics 365

May 04, 2018

Security and privacy concerns in business have skyrocketed recently. Organizations are now heavily focusing on security, not just to safeguard their assets and customer privacy but also to comply with security guidelines.If you own a business and manage personal data, you’ve probably heard of it – and if you haven’t, the time ha...

Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation

May 02, 2018

To track and manage the delivery of products, managers have been using different software tools in the past. With the now popular Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation, you can build your work breakdown structure into a project plan, which is a robust end to end solution. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Project Servic...

Dynamics 365 for Marketing

May 01, 2018

Dynamics and marketing go way back. The people who have used Dynamics CRM for a couple of years now will be familiar with the Marketing module and what it covers …. Or, should I say, used to cover.As we know, Microsoft has made the decision that Microsoft Dynamics Marketing will be discontinued as of May 15, 2018.With the disco...

Office 365 Groups for Dynamics 365

Apr 24, 2018

Office 365 is a Microsoft application which deals with sharing of emails, notes, and documents in a group by using Office online, OneNote, Word, and Excel.Integration of Office 365 with Dynamics 365 became much easier due to the release of latest version of Dynamics 365 Online. Through this integration work life has become much ...

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service

Apr 19, 2018

Dynamics 365 helps field services in a host of activities. Field technicians can store, update and access information whenever needed and it also enhances customer visibility, which helps to maintain a healthy customer relationship for a longer period.The Field Service feature helps to interact with technicians and also helps t...

Artificial Intelligence for Event Management

Apr 13, 2018

Relying on computation for decision-making gives businesses a greater competitive edge. And, we have people talking about AI everywhere, from Elon Musk to Mark Zuckerberg.Event management is no exception and an AI experience will be expected by many. Following are the areas where Artificial Intelligence will play a major role in...

Dynamics 365 for Talent management

Apr 09, 2018

Talent acquisition, transformation, and management are critical anchors for any organization.The Human Resource Department often finds themselves submerged in an ocean of challenges ranging from unskilled labor, less than optimal employee engagement, and loss of top talent to other organizations. Adding to this, around half of t...

Predictive and Preventive Maintenance

Apr 02, 2018

Predictive maintenance might sound like a buzzword but I have seen it in action. I can take the credit for implementing it and rendering it useful for end users.I spoke about predictive maintenance and how it can work across industries in a� webinar.Predicting unplanned failures can be beneficial to-Warranty CostWarranty cost ha...

Social Engagement in Microsoft Dynamics 365

Mar 29, 2018

Since its inception, Dynamics CRM has been a de-facto standard in sales, marketing, customer service and industry solutions.Well, Dynamics 365 provides no exception and continues to build on the legacy of the Microsoft Dynamics family. Social Engagement provides powerful social tools in the hands of business professionals and he...

Asset Maintenance and System Reliability go Hand in Hand.

Mar 29, 2018

System reliability, uptime and downtime measures are core to industries such as manufacturing, oil and gas pipeline. Reliability measurement also plays an important role for consumer-oriented services such as gas stations, ATMs, and electric charging stations. Measuring these inter-related measures helps us check system’s health...

Revenue Cycle Management: Effective Charge Capture using RPA

Mar 27, 2018

In the current phase where there are rapid changes in reimbursement methods, it is imperative that healthcare organizations capture every charge representing the care provided, and they bill correctly as per regulations.Unfortunately some RCM applications fail to identify missed charges and make the process of rectifying any lea...

Automated Data Discovery – The Next Level in Business Intelligence

Mar 01, 2018

Many technology breakthroughs have taken place in last 10-15 years and have brought to the current stage where automated data discovery (ADD) is achievable and will soon become the regular way of conducting data profiling/data exploration exercises. There was a time when pulling data from Teradata or Brio to Excel, Minitab, perf...

How can RPA help in Healthcare RCM?

Mar 01, 2018

Recent research shows that the healthcare RCM market is projected to grow to USD 65.2 billion by 2025. This growing market would need skilled workforce, which is already a scarce resource. With this tremendous projected growth, hiring and retaining top talent will pose to be a huge challenge.Unlike other automated approaches, Ro...

Data security for GDPR and long-term RPA solutions

Feb 27, 2018

In my previous blogs, I spoke about GDPR and use cases where Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can provide some quick wins and help organizations work towards GDPR adherence without making extensive changes to their processes and LOB applications. In this blog, I will discuss areas where RPA can provide long-term compliance.With ...

GDPR PII – RPA solutions to address new PII identifiers

Feb 20, 2018

In my previous blog, I introduced how RPA can address some of the mandatory obligations put in force by GDPR. Here, I take up the scope of GDPR personal identifiable information (PII) and how RPA can address some of the cases.GDPR increases the scope of personal identifiable information (PII) identifiers by including online iden...

The Bot Controversy – Scare or Care?

Jan 30, 2018

“The BOTS are coming! The BOTS are coming!The BOTS are coming to take your jobs!”It is always scary to read such stories! And what is even worse?Reading scary facts that thousands & millions will lose their jobs because of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and further linking it to dooms day!“BOTS will Rule”There are always 2...

Analytics and Trends Evolution in the Airline Industry

Jan 25, 2018

I always follow research efforts by MIT Center of Transportation. It is an easy way to know the problems that mature airline industry of North America is facing and attempting to solve. Another such department active in the field of airline industry was (and still is) the ISYE- Industrial and Systems Engineering department at ...

RPA in Claim Processing reduces Claim Denials

Jan 15, 2018

Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) companies face numerous challenges, including claim denials and cost to collect. It is estimated that up to 40 percent of medical bills contain errors and a report by Advisory Board states that 90% of claim denials are preventable and can be corrected for payment. Claim denial management is a big o...

Outliers – An important element in Business Intelligence

Jan 11, 2018

It’s always fascinating to observe outliers and understand them. Outliers are the data points that don’t seem to fit well with rest of the data population. It is interesting that data points with outlier behavior are ‘outlier’ but can be found in almost every dataset that you get your hands on. Identifying outliers is always one...

Intelligent Solutions using Cloud Based AI Platforms

Jan 07, 2018

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are two big buzzwords prevalent across the industries today. People, in particular developers are fascinated with this emergent technology, irrespective of their area of expertise. While a lot of them are still trying to figure out the nuances of AI and ML, the world has mov...

OCR, ICR and RPA – The nuts and bolts

Dec 11, 2017

We spoke about Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and how bots can be used to speed up processes and remove unintentional errors which crop up during document management. The two techniques followed in the automation industry are OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition), to read any type of d...

Integrating Regex in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Nov 28, 2017

Regular Expression, REGEX, or regexp, sometimes called a rational expression, can be defined as a sequence of characters that form a search pattern.It’s like sorcery to a layman, something they don’t really comprehend, but want to make use of anyway, for it’s a very powerful tool, especially when used aptly and for the right pur...

Robotics Process Automation – Revolutionizing IT Industry

Nov 14, 2017

Within IT organizations or any other industry, automation is the new entrant and is here to stay!Robotics Process Automation – giving way to Artificial Intelligence? A speedy approach? Or error free technology? Or Productivity?According to industry statistics, 30-40% of project costs are rework. Automation is a natural er...

Image Recognition – The heart of sophisticated RPA

Oct 31, 2017

RPA platforms use IDs to identify the elements inside the target applications and then perform actions like mouse clicks or sending Hotkeys to get the desired end result. When we work with remote systems and databases, like Citrix or the open web, it is not easy for the robot to identify the selector regions on screen.In case of...

Robotic Process Automation in Insurance Industry

Jul 11, 2017

(RPA) applies specific technologies to automate routine, standardized tasks in support of an enterprise’s knowledge workers. By freeing human employees from these mundane tasks to apply themselves to core business objectives, RPA offers a number of compelling benefits to the workplace. – Institute for Robotic Process Automation ...

Predictive Analytics – Step 1 on the path to AI

Jun 08, 2017

Along with the emergence of new devices, we have data which is ever growing. And all this data is being collected for what?As someone correctly said – to analyze, see patterns and predict!And for all this data, you might think Artificial Intelligence (AI) to solve all data problems. And that is a good answer too.But, how d...

Dynamics 365 – Relationship Insights

May 25, 2017

Relationship Insights leverages the data-integration and artificial-intelligence capabilities built into Azure to combine and analyze your Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Outlook data. Relationship Insights uses the insights derived from this analysis to surface features thatRelationship Insights features are context sensitive, so th...

BI tools and Data Analytics to boost Retail sales and performance analysis

May 17, 2017

We have talked about Business Intelligence in Retail prior to this too, where we discussed how customer acquisition and analyzing customer data is key for a successful retail business. Now we will talk about how we can analyze sales and performance and use BI tools to help in decision making.BI is nothing but a tool which helps ...

Microsoft Flow: Simplifying tasks in Office 365 & Dynamics 365

May 02, 2017

What is Microsoft Flow?Microsoft Flow [MS Flow] is a powerful tool which lets you sit back and relax while it does things for you in the background in Office 365/ Dynamics 365. In layman terms, Microsoft Flow is a set of rules that lets various apps communicate with each other automatically.Features of MS Flow:Limitations of MSF...

What is Digital in Mortgage?

Apr 24, 2017

Digital or Digitalization is an umbrella term for the services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.This is going to be a series of posts on digital mortgage, in the attempt to discuss and give a clear picture of what is the digita...

Product Recommendation using Azure Recommendation Service (Cognitive Service API)

Apr 21, 2017

Can you imagine how a company can be impacted by a system which will suggest products on the basis of past data?This can help the Sales team target products better to their existing clientele and in the process have better outcomes and generate more revenue for the company.Dynamics 365 comes with a new feature called Product rec...

How to configure your Interactive Service Hub?

Apr 19, 2017

In the previous post, we discussed about the Interactive Service Hub (ISH), and how it can make the life of a user simple. Now, this time around, I will be laying down the steps to go ahead and configure the ISH to suit your requirements. The ISH is part of the default settings within Dynamics 365, but user configurations can be...

Suggest similar cases for a case – Text Analytics by Microsoft Cognitive Services

Apr 18, 2017

Are you the person involved in query resolution?If yes, then this feature is surely going to interest you… It is human nature to search for an existing solution to a problem rather than resolving the case by starting afresh. Microsoft Cognitive Services helps us to find similar cases if any exist in the case system, so tha...

Meet ISH – Interactive Service Hub of Dynamics 365

Apr 10, 2017

Microsoft Dynamics 365 has brought about many changes to how you interact with prospects, leads and customers. When you are looking at upping your customer service, use the all new intuitive and interactive experience from the Interactive Service Hub (ISH). It’s loaded with rich dashboards and redesigned forms that pull together...

4 Reasons why you should Upgrade to Dynamics 365

Mar 28, 2017

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has always been focused on creating a seamless customer experience and bringing customer engagement through a faultless service oriented sales approach. But, when there are so many interactions in the digital world, a customer is bound to get frazzled and in this mayhem, it is all the more difficult to cap...

How can BI help in adhering to insurance industry regulations?

Mar 27, 2017

Developing an adaptable strategy for regulatory challenges and adhering to industry regulations, along with a good ROI for each investment is a tough nut to crack.Every big insurance company has multiple portfolios which are managed by different managers. Each investment manager should adhere to 3 levels of regulatory compliance...

The How and Why of Business Intelligence in Retail

Mar 06, 2017

The retail business involves the process of selling consumer goods or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn profit. There are many challenges which these retailers face on an ongoing basis, where the primary two are – competition for customers and the expenses involved in running a retail...

How to – Build, Sign and Zipalign the already generated apk with existing key store file.

Mar 02, 2017

Updating an app on Play store is something which is a routine task if you wish to optimize the app and increase usability for the users. When we try to publish an update for an existing app to play store we SHOULD use the existing key store file which we used while initially publishing the app on play store.While trying to achie...

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Enhanced Customer Experience

Feb 21, 2017

In my last blog I talked about how, Robotic Process Automation leads to changing job roles and the effect it would have on employees and employers.Here, I take the opportunity to highlight the great multiplier effect a successful RPA implementation can have on customer experience.Whatever be the form of these journeys, all of us...

Business Intelligence Needs of Insurers

Feb 18, 2017

The insurance industry has gone through many changes in the past few years. The interaction between insurers and customers has changed a great deal and strong competition is forcing insurers to take quick steps in building closer ties with their customers. There are many business intelligence tools out there which work great for...

How To: Background jobs in Web Application using Hangfire

Feb 09, 2017

Don’t you not like it one bit when users think that your application is sluggish? And you know that, you really cannot do anything about it, because it is interacting with third party services, tools, vendors, and is just doing way too many tasks and some of them really complex.If you think, the user need not wait for the job to...

How To: Audit Summary and Login Tracking

Feb 06, 2017

Organizations need to track changes made to business data for maintaining security, examining the history of a particular data record, documenting modifications for future analysis and record keeping, and being in compliance with regulations.The audit logs help the Microsoft Dynamics CRM administrator answer questions such as:Th...

Claim Analysis and fraud detection Using Business Intelligence

Feb 02, 2017

Fast and effective claim handling is the base for customer relationships in the insurance industry, but insurance companies also have to protect themselves from the fraud claims that they might be faced with time to time.A new study from the Insurance Research Council (IRC) estimates that claim fraud and buildup added between $5...

RPA & the emergence of new job roles

Jan 30, 2017

A few months ago I had written about the impact of RPA on traditional back-office and rule based activities performed by humans.The disruptions look scary and have a massive impact in the short term. However, newer sectors of job roles opening up will make it more interesting for workers and will also help organizations run bett...

Microsoft AppSource: Helping your business work smarter

Jan 18, 2017

Dynamics 365 has brought in one-click integration of business solutions through Apps. The apps cover a range of needs such as sales, recruiting, payments, analytics, forecasting and much more. Microsoft AppSource is more than just a destination for SaaS business apps, it is a growing community for every user of Microsoft technol...

Insurance Risk Management and Business Analytics

Jan 16, 2017

Insurance is a risk-transferring mechanism that ensures full or partial financial compensation for the loss or damage caused by event(s) beyond the control of the insured party. And in turn, risk management is very important for the insurance industry. Insurers consider every available quantifiable factor to develop profiles of ...

How To: CRM Online & Azure Bus Integration

Nov 25, 2016

Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Azure cloud together can bring great potential to any technology solution. This brings us to the point of integrating these two systems. We had previously shown you how to integrate Azure with Dynamics CRM employing the on premise listener. Apart from this method, we can also use the two way listener u...

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and its impact

Nov 09, 2016

In my last blog I touched upon Intelligent Enterprise Automation broadly covering Machine Learning, Autonomics, Machine / Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing. Today, I will focus on Autonomics and its impact on business and IT to be more specific.Autonomics are intelligent systems that apply self-adapting policies to...

What NOT to do when upgrading your Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016

Nov 04, 2016

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has evolved drastically over the past few years. There have been many updates and versions released, with a range of new features and improvements at each stage along the path. During the upgrade of a Dynamics CRM environment, there are a few points to bear in mind to ensure a hassle- free upgrade process....

Integrating Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Online with Azure Service Bus Queue

Oct 26, 2016

With the advent of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 online many new features have been incorporated. One such feature that we all have been waiting for long is, seamless integration of MS CRM with Microsoft Cloud or popularly known as Microsoft Azure.You can connect Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2016 Update and Microsoft Dynamics CRM...

Enterprise Intelligent Automation – coming of age

Oct 24, 2016

By 2019, the global market for content analytics, discovery and cognitive systems software is projected to reach $9.2 billion, according to IDC, more than double that of 2014.Intelligent automation is rapidly coming of age. “Smart” machines and “smart” systems and “smart” bots are becoming mainstream. Intelligent automation whic...

Dynamics 365 – Understanding it beyond the words

Oct 04, 2016

Microsoft made a big announcement at their recent conference in their path to a cloud- only mode which started 5 years back, when they moved Office to the cloud, and named it Office 365. This fall, they will be bringing in CRM and ERP to the cloud under the banner of Dynamics 365. This will ensure that all data which currently s...

Connecting the dots for an IoT scenario

Jun 15, 2016

Today IoT is a buzz word in the market. But, what is IOT- Internet of Things?Internet of things is all about collecting and managing massive amount of data from a rapidly growing network of devices and sensors, processing the data, and then sharing it with other connected things. Though we have already seen this in a limited sco...

What is Column store index?

Mar 03, 2016

Column store index is a new feature in MS SQL server, initially introduced with MS SQL server 2012 but had some limitations. Those limitations have been removed in MS SQL server 2016.Column store index is designed to speed up analytical processing and data warehouse querying. As the name suggests, here data is stored column wise...

Setting up CI & Deployment Automation – Ansible

Feb 25, 2016

Recently, we did some great work on Continuous Delivery and thought we should share our learnings. We implemented the solution of Continuous Integration & Auto Deployment (Continuous Delivery) for a major Australian customer in retail & ecommerce space. The challenges we faced were to maintain several instances of the ...

Composite Controls – Features and Customization in Dynamics CRM

Feb 04, 2016

MS CRM 2013 came in with new features which changed the usability, design and customization options within CRM. In this post, we will be looking at Composite Controls, a new feature in MS CRM 2013. We shall detail how to customize the flyout items of the control in MSCRM 2015.Composite field is a new feature of MS CRM 2013, whic...

Custom Auto Deployment: A Client – Server Model

Jan 22, 2016

Auto deployment is extremely useful when installations need to be carried out at multiple locations in a quick and effective manner.One of our customers, one of the major ISVs in Behavioral health with over a hundred client installations, were handling many such installations manually. The process in place used deployment via r...

Visual Controls for MS CRM 2016 Mobile

Dec 16, 2015

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 introduced lots of new features for Mobile/Tablet. Especially rich set of new controls to create more touch-friendly experience on CRM Phones and Tablets.To use these controls in the form editor:ControlExampleLinear Slider Option Set Flip SwitchStart ratingRadial knob Multimedia co...

Segmented Solutions and Patches in Dynamics CRM

Dec 07, 2015

Another awesome and useful feature that every system customizer waited for – Segmented solutions and patches in MS CRM 2016.Now we can export the solutions with entity fields, forms and views rather than entire entity using patches and cloned solutions.Following things should be taken into consideration when you create a ...

Organization data service (OData v2 REST endpoint) deprecated

Dec 03, 2015

Organization data service (OData v2 REST endpoint) deprecatedThe OData endpoint uses the Open Data protocol. This protocol implements a “RESTful” design pattern. REST represents Representational State Transfer. REST is an architectural style in which every resource is addressed by using a unique URI. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, O...

Whats new in MSCRM?

Dec 02, 2015

It’s always good to be up to date on the releases and features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Knowing the features increases your Microsoft Dynamics CRM knowledge as well as let you analyze the suitability of customizations for a CRM project. With the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Update, v...

Configuring Field Level Security Profile

Nov 25, 2015

In our last blog, we shared knowledge on Global Search in MS CRM 2015. Today, let’s discuss about how to Configure Field Level Security Profile in MSCRM 2015.In MSCRM, Record-level permissions are granted at the entity level. Sometimes, we may have certain fields associated with an entity that contain data that is more sen...

How Global Search Works!!

Nov 25, 2015

Global search uses Quick Find Entity View to search the records. If a field should be searched globally, add the field as a Search column under Quick Find View of the associated entity. Navigate to Settings > Customizations > Entities > Expand the entity for which the search field should be added. Select on Views and op...

Sitemap impact with solution import on different CRM versions

Jun 25, 2015

CRM vertical solutions are required to function on different Dynamics CRM versions to enable users using different versione benefit from the solution. Herein, when using a common sitemap for the solution, importing it on different CRM versions will result in some loss of links and as a result, errors.Problem: When an unmanaged s...

Cloud and mobile revolutionizing the pharmaceutical industry

Jun 08, 2015

Compliance tracking, globalized clinical trials and outsourced vendors has made it almost mandatory for this industry to push aside the traditional outlook and get onto the technology bandwagon.Pharmaceutical regulatory compliance is primarily dependent on the management of the compliance process and thorough documentation to de...

Sitemap Issues with CRM Migration

May 18, 2015

Dynamics CRM 2015 has a host of features which have been given a much needed uplift from CRM 2013 and moreover from CRM 2011. Hence, migration of solutions run into concerns during or after migration due to a variety of reasons. Here we will look at the issues which crop up concerning sitemap customizations when a managed soluti...

Insecure Direct Object References – Closing the doors

Mar 04, 2015

We have all worked on scenarios where we grant system object access to certain users based on the parameter, provided by them. Sometimes, the user just changes the parameter passed as input intelligently, and she gets access to some restricted documents or db data.For example, you should not be able to see your manager’s review ...

Cross-site Scripting (XSS) – Focus on validation for web applications

Feb 20, 2015

As a part of this security series, I had posted previously about SQL injection, and how this simple concept can manifest itself into a major security concern. This blog post will focus on validation of input and output in a web application.In web-application it has been noticed that we validate the input most of the time. This ...

How to – Visualizing Hierarchical Data in Dynamics CRM 2015

Feb 12, 2015

We had discussed earlier about some of the top features in Dynamics CRM 2015, and one that we missed out on picking up was the new and powerful feature – Visualizing Hierarchical Data. As we have started to use this feature, we have realized the sheer potential this feature can bring in for quicker, efficient and effective data ...

SQL Injection – A simple query which can manifest as a security concern

Jan 27, 2015

In my previous blog, I focused on the security issues associated with broken authentication and session management concerns. Here I shall focus on the security and the vulnerability quotient of an application.I will discuss about the threats and their possible solutions. I will also mention few tools that aid the hacker in outs...

Strategies for Web Application Performance Optimization

Jan 23, 2015

Know yourself and know your enemies, use you ammunition to annihilate the enemies. So before going for a war, first figure out whether you have enemies (performance issues). Is your application not meeting the performance benchmark? There is always scope of improvement, albeit in diminishing returns, so your performance work wou...

Broken Authentication and Session Management – A security concern

Dec 19, 2014

This blog post showcases the need for protecting user’s password, the password habits that the application should enforce to the end user, and the practices that a developer should follow to secure a user’s information, especially the session information. This blog will also focus on aspects of session management.Some key ...

Top 5 features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015

Nov 18, 2014

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 release has many new and improved features, which presents great improvements in how we can utilize the platform better. The updates will enable marketers to plan and execute marketing campaigns better, track impact, and strengthen collaborations with the sales process.Customers today have higher ...

Increase Sales Productivity with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Oct 31, 2014

Business sales have been changing since the advent of internet. It has been a slow and steady change which has been led by social media primarily, amongst a host of other features which were unleashed by the internet. First week, October, Microsoft announced that it will offer a Sales Productivity solution that combines Microsof...

Microsoft Social Listening: Hear Customers and Drive Revenue

Sep 24, 2014

Armed with a smart phone, every customer is a source of praise or rant. And more often than not, it is the latter which you need to be looking out for. But if intercepted at the correct juncture, a rant can also be sufficiently mellowed in impact. Microsoft Social Listening offers a powerful analytics tool for social media inter...

Filtered lookup for Dynamics CRM 2013

Sep 18, 2014

Filtered lookup is a feature which was introduced in Dynamics CRM 2011, a greatly appreciated improvement from CRM 4. Prior to this, developers had to use third party tools to achieve the same result.So, let’s start at the very beginningWhen you have a large data set, and you want to filter the data in a progressive manner, then...

Power Pages: Bridge the gap between traditional web applications and single page applications

Sep 12, 2014

Power Pages bridge the gap between traditional web applications and a single page application. Power Pages are a super set of single page applications which gets integrated with existing web application. Power Pages help to integrate or add a set of functionality into an existing web application. It works in a similar manner as ...

Doctrine Migration – Part 2

Sep 02, 2014

Doctrine migration has been used by me many times, and there are some small changes which affect the process, and some others which help us to use the migration process better. Part 1 of the Doctrine migration series depicted how to go about a migration set up. Now, I shall go about explaining in a step by step manner how to go...

Network security, a change in approach for the cloud

Aug 28, 2014

When an organization built and controlled its own networks, it was imperative that the security would vary and was largely dependent on the organization requirements. But, with a cloud infrastructure setup, the security methodology and requirements change significantly. And many of those who try to attempt to tackle the issue th...

Doctrine Migration – Part 1

Aug 26, 2014

The database migrations feature is an extension of the database abstraction layer and offers you the ability to programmatically deploy new versions of your database schema in a safe and standardized way.Even though Doctrine has schema-tool commands to update the database schema, its suggested to use doctrine migrations when upd...

Wearable technology, the hope for those living with Parkinson’s

Aug 19, 2014

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a slow degenerative disease which kills the brain cells causing tremors and some extend of rigidity, and loss of motor functions. It eats away at the dopamine releasing neurons, resulting in a drop in dopamine within the brain, causing the locomotive difficulties in patients. The most common side effe...

Windows Azure Mobile Services Offline Sync (Alpha)

Aug 11, 2014

In the recent build event, Microsoft announced a bunch of updates to its Azure stack. Today, I will focus on one of the most exciting features – Offline Sync on Mobile ServicesAs the name implies, it is an effort in the direction of providing out of the box offline sync capabilities for mobile applications which connect to Azure...

Bioinformatics services on the cloud

Aug 08, 2014

Personalized medicine is all about treating a patient with the specific medicine suited to their body as determined by their gene makeup. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field bringing in the experimental data from biological sciences and analyzing them using information technology tools, such as cloud servers, analytical...

Increase ROI with Dynamics CRM Social Listening

Jul 30, 2014

Spring ‘14 release of Dynamics CRM 2013 introduced Social Listening to all Dynamics CRM 2013 Professional License users. How is this Social Listening tool different from the many others which are available in the market today? Microsoft has aimed to deliver the social power to every user of the Dynamics CRM platform. A user mayb...

Delivering a great user experience in an agile environment

Jul 22, 2014

Agile development teams have been seen to be on the rise in the past few years. Almost 60% of software development uses agile methodologies, especially Scrum. Scrum, per say, is an iterative and incremental agile software development framework for managing product development. But, being a UX developer, it is essential to be inv...

Radiology Information Systems (RIS) on the cloud

Jul 14, 2014

Radiology as a practice uses many software suites which tend to be expensive for every hospital and imaging center to purchase for exclusive use. A safe and economical option would be to use them in conjunction with a cloud service by purchasing licenses for requisite software packages.Cloud computing will free radiology from th...

A Social face for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013

Jul 03, 2014

With the spring release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 SP1, Microsoft has brought in a tool which has become synonymous to ‘Today’ – Social Listening. In this first part of our Social Listening series, we will discuss about what social listening brings to Dynamics CRM 2013. In the second part we will look at how this can be put ...

Out comes Leo: Dynamics CRM 2013 SP1

Jun 09, 2014

Microsoft has focused in the past one year on redesigning the user interface and towards implementing a rapid six month release cycle. Alongside, three acquisitions have added specific function centric features making Dynamics CRM 2013 a better product especially, for the sales and marketing teams.The spring release of Microsoft...

Dynamics CRM for patient care

May 26, 2014

Today, there is a great emphasis on patient engagement and secure free access of information for patients for better quality healthcare. But, these avenues are not on the top of the mind as there are many other features which demand attention now as compared to relationship management.Relationship management in healthcare indust...

Adapt your solution to sync with the cloud

May 21, 2014

Quicker, faster deployment and highly efficient support is what every user of technology demands. Many solutions are not made for the cloud, but there are solutions to employ cloud in these solutions too. When assessing a suitable cloud solution to transform your technology solution to suite business needs, often you are curbed ...

Why VoIP phone systems work for small businesses?

May 16, 2014

Managing landlines and traditional telephone providers for small businesses are always a concern and with the hype surrounding VoIP, there are many who are looking to take up the flexibility and monetary benefits associated with VoIP. A VoIP phone system installed on your premise offers a hybrid solution, which combines the bene...

Continuous Delivery – A Software Development Process

May 14, 2014

Following the industry trend of shortening product time to market, more and more teams’/organizations’ release-cycles are moving from years and months to weeks and days. This requires weekly or daily releases to be the norm to achieve this high level of productivity.This is a good place to start when starting a project to build ...

A disaster recovery plan for business continuity

May 12, 2014

Business continuity is different from disaster recovery. Many times, both these are combined to a single plan, but disaster recovery can encompass technology failure, infrastructure failure or such. Business continuity plans would be required, in its true sense when a natural calamity strikes. This allows for users to connect t...

Test automation of GWT applications using Selenium WebDriver

Apr 28, 2014

With the advent of Software as a service (SaaS), responsive web applications running on Web 2.0 became more and more common. GWT by Google is a collection of tools that helps making applications running on web, more intuitive and responsive. The unique capability of GWT is that it compiles java code to highly optimized JavaScrip...

Data Center: Increase efficiency and bring down energy consumption

Apr 21, 2014

Cloud computing requires many data centers to be up and running to provide the seamless connectivity and access to data on an ongoing basis. Cloud providers aim to operate efficiently and utilize data centers in an optimized manner. Power consumption for these data centers is a primary carbon footprint for these cloud providers....

IPv6 test for assured connectivity

Apr 16, 2014

Everyone has heard the hype about IPv6 so it is important to understand, what ISV needs to know about IPv6 in 2014.With the increase in internet accessing devices, the pool of IPv4 addresses have been greatly depleted. This has led the telecommunication companies to upgrade to service the larger pool of internet users by moving ...

IaaS to boost big data analytics

Apr 11, 2014

GigaSpaces states 80% of IT executives in a survey are considering moving their big data analytics to one or more cloud delivery models. For some organizations which already have an internal private cloud, big data analytics can be a part of their offerings in-house, or else they can host it externally through the help of an Iaa...

Infrastructure as a service in mobile application development

Apr 09, 2014

As per a study, in 2013, 17.4 % of global web traffic comes through mobile devices, a 6% increase from 2012. Hence it would be safe to assume that there would be many IaaS supported applications which are accessed through mobile devices. The two major IaaS providers Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure both offer specif...

Microsoft Dynamics CRM for iPad

Apr 07, 2014

The growth rate for tablet adoption was 6 % in the third quarter of 2013. It has also been seen that more traveling professionals prefer to sync up their work using a tablet, like the iPad rather than a laptop. Dynamics CRM 2013 mobile client for the iPad offers mobility within the sales function. iPads have become synonymous to...

Migration from CRM 4.0 to Dynamics CRM 2013

Apr 02, 2014

Migration from CRM 4.0 to Dynamics CRM 2013 is not a single step procedure, but it is nevertheless not difficult either. The steps involved would be to first move to CRM 2011 and then progressively upgrade to Dynamics CRM 2013. There exists no direct upgrade option from CRM 4.0 to Dynamics CRM 2013.When migrating from CRM 4.0 to...

5 myths about cloud security

Mar 28, 2014

Speaking of security concerns with Infrastructure as a Service provider, there are many who believe cloud service providers will provide better security, and there are others who believe there will be greater risks associated with cloud usage, such as data breaches and cloud services abuse. There are many myths associated with c...

Migration from CRM 2011 to Dynamics CRM 2013

Mar 26, 2014

Many users of CRM have been looking to move to Dynamics CRM 2013 from their previous versions. This new CRM comes in after 2 years and with a host of changes and new features which work well for different user sets and it also caters to solving many issues which was prevalent in Dynamics CRM 2011.There are many documented proced...

How can infrastructure as a service provide cloud security?

Mar 21, 2014

Speaking of security concerns with Infrastructure as a Service provider, there are many who believe cloud service providers will provide better security, and there are others who believe there will be greater risks associated with cloud usage, such as data breaches and cloud services abuse.There are many myths associated with cl...

Evolution of Infrastructure as a Service

Mar 06, 2014

Till a few years back, Infrastructure meant servers in house which were managed by an IT resource personnel or a service provider. With cloud infrastructure coming into play, there came both physical and cloud environments to be managed. Many enterprises decided to host some applications on the cloud, where as some were to be ke...

Why small business should turn to Dynamics CRM 2013?

Mar 03, 2014

Businesses, especially small businesses, are particularly looking for ways to increase sales and capture new customers. Apart from sales and stellar delivery, customer service has become very important, as happy customers will always return. Why small businesses fail to grow shows that there exists more than one way for a compa...

8 Tips for successful Dynamics CRM 2013 implementation

Feb 18, 2014

1. Think through what you want the CRM to do Implementation of a CRM project should be in line with business needs and must be with the involvement of the management team. A CRM design phase gives you an opportunity to rethink your processes and streamline them for better productivity. There are many inbuilt modules in Dynamics...

How to choose an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider?

Feb 10, 2014

Thinking of Infrastructure as a Service, chances are that you would think of Rackspace, Verizon Cloud or Amazon Web Services. Where Microsoft Azure and Google Compute Engine are relatively new entrants, Amazon Web Services has been around with the likes of Rackspace. Opting to work with one provider over another is based on a my...

Infrastructure as a Service reinvents (Information Technology) IT department as we know it

Jan 30, 2014

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides many advantages to a company. Any company, of any size, has the option to access powerful resources and solutions, not inhibited by the initial capital expenditure. The pay as you need model of IaaS enables companies to utilize their resources to the optimum and scale up or down as per...

Agile development, Scrum, Kanban. What do they mean?

Jan 02, 2014

Agile development has been gaining popularity particularly due to today’s outsourced mode of technology development. Agile software development is a group of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-fu...

A good mobile test methodology

Nov 28, 2013

Recently we did a post on the role a real device plays in the testing process. The next step in a successful testing plan is the mobile test methodology which is to be employed. There are various tests which are possible, and each of them play a role which when understood can result in a completely tested error- free application...

Do you always need a mobile device for mobile application testing?

Nov 21, 2013

Your app is meant for end users, to be run on physical mobile devices, and hence it is important that the testing is also done on them.Speaking of mobile applications, there are two different natures of applications which run on mobile devices, native mobile applications and mobile web applications. The testing practices of each...

Part 2: A Guide to Transitioning from iOS 6 to iOS 7

Nov 14, 2013

Last week, we had looked at how we should address GUI changes when we are looking to transition from iOS6 to iOS7 for iphone apps. We saw how the underlying theme has changed with the upgrade to iOS7, and what are the changes you should be watching for when you look at transitioning your iphone app from iOS6 to iOS7. This week w...

New pricing strategy brings flexibility to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Online

Nov 12, 2013

flexi pricing to give users flexibility and a move in line with the redesign of the CRM product line for 2013. As a part of the new pricing strategy, Microsoft will offer 3 pricing options, licenses priced at $15, $30 and $65 per user per month in USD. Every organization can mix and match the three licenses within the organizat...

Part 1: A Guide to Transitioning from iOS 6 to iOS 7

Nov 04, 2013

Nalashaa offers a full range of mobility product engineering services including outsourced mobile development, technical consulting, GUI consulting and an extensive testing as a service package. As you read through this guide if any of these steps strike you as something you would like assistance, advice or even just a chance t...

Windows azure migration: A checklist

Sep 30, 2013

During Windows azure migration, there are various concerns which crop up regarding storage, dependencies, session states etc.Following are the major concerns which needs to be addressed, and a plan charted out prior to migration.Windows azure migration would require complete application data migration, and this is a primary conc...

Latest Prescription: Hybrid Cloud

Sep 11, 2013

Cloud computing comprises broadly of Public, Private and Hybrid clouds. Healthcare companies have been predominantly using private clouds in the past to adhere to prevalent data security norms. HIPAA and HITECH acts require that electronic protected health information (ePHI) be stored and processed in a secured manner and not sh...

Do Not Re-Invent the Wheel – Test Automation SIP Series

Apr 26, 2013

Continuing our conversation about tips for better software test automation, this time we would talk about reuse.Given the fact that many test automation initiatives suffer from time crunch, this aspect becomes even more important to understand. While it is very tempting to want to write your own framework for everything you need...

Test Script Execution & Continuous Integration – Test Automation SIP Series

May 26, 2012

Continuous IntegrationPractice makes man perfect – so goes the old adage. This is even more true for tests. While there could be few scripts to be executed on-demand for certain situations, as a rule of thumb attempt should be made to include automation test scripts with a continuous integration system. If there is no continuous...

6 Best Practices for Tracing & Logging in Test Automation – SIP Series

May 02, 2012

Since test automation scripts would run in most of the cases in scheduled mode unsupervised without any manual intervention, it becomes imperative to have solid tracing and logging mechanisms built into the automation framework so that if anything goes wrong, it is still possible to recreate the error and make meaningful logical...

5 Key Areas of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Testing

Apr 20, 2012

1. Functional Testing Checklist This is the standard functional testing to validate if the app is doing what it is supposed to do.2. Infrastructure and Security Testing The goal of this is to test the underlying infrastructure and security of the app. 3. Performance and Scalability Testing A critical area of SaaS apps testing, a...

6 Challenges of testing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Apps

Mar 26, 2012

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) businesses are seeing hyper-growth, and with more and more organizations adopting SaaS instead of on-premise software, the R&D organizations of SaaS companies have their task cut out. The QA/Testing team are especially challenged owing to the short release cycles and the fact that thousands of cu...

The Saga of Test Data – How does test data impact quality of test automation – Test Automation SIP Series

Mar 04, 2012

Impact of Test Data on Test AutomationWhat can make a good test a weak one? What can make a simple test an effective one?Data.Or Test Data to be precise.A test and its test-data are like body and soul. But like in real life, soul often gets neglected. While test developers focus a lot of their energies in automating most complex...

Power of Abstractions

Feb 26, 2012

Traditional Approach...

7 Key Best Practices of Software Test Automation

Feb 23, 2012

Test Automation is an integral part of any software development and sustenance project. However, research shows that 80% of test automation projects fail while the other 20% do not yield enough ROI. In this article, we share our experience of automating testing in several projects and how some of these best practices will make y...

Test Code Deserves First Class Citizen Treatment – Test Automation SIP Series

Feb 19, 2012

First Things FirstContinuing the discussion about our distilled experience in test automation, we will continue our discussion, starting with the basics. Anyone who can type a semi-colon, can write code. Writing code is easy. Writing good code is not. And writing good code which can test other code is even more difficult. Common...