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The New Stuff

Automate Your Business Now! You Need It

For a company that is essentially growing, it always faces the challenge of defining the efficient processes and tools to optimize the business. For the record, technology has made everything simpler and a little complex too. Well, automation of your business is here for your rescue.


Often, in our workplace conversations, we talk about how an employee is facing problems in measuring productivity or tracking the progress of a team. All of these doubts and problems can be solved by automating your business from an expert in IT Solutions or an End to End Software Solution Provider.

How can you Automate your Business?

We have curated these tips to help you successfully automate your business processes and operations. Take a look at these steps that elaborate on taking this transition:

1. Define the Purpose, Needs & Problem Areas

For each areas of your business, there are different set of needs and processes. It is important to identify these areas in order to meet them. Another aspect is defining your purpose for this automation.

You need to ask questions whether you wish to automate a certain sector or the whole business operations or you wish to only enable your employees. This will bring clarity in terms of what kind of automation you require. It can be accounting automation or it can be related to your simply the email automation.

After we know of the purpose, it becomes easier to go ahead and plan for automation and decide on the budgets for the same or selecting the solution. Eventually, when you study the groups that need to be automated, you need to know of the problems areas, so that along with meeting the needs, you also resolve the problems if any.

2. Determine Important Areas

Start by understanding different areas of your business. And then analyze what are the problems, the requirements or the improvements that can optimize that area of the business. The identification of this will be somewhere visible as soon as you define the purpose.

When you know of these areas, then you can plan to choose the solutions or look for the solution to meet those requirements.

3. Think of Digital Communication

Whether it is sending out collaterals or sharing the next contract with terms and conditions. In this digital era, it has become a standard to send your collaterals in a digital format. But doing the same too often can be time taking and tedious. Automate that process and please your clients by reaching out to them anywhere in the world in the way you want. Also, going digital helps you better presentation and brand building.

“A great way that everyone wins is by having contracts provided digitally to your existing or future clients. It makes the execution of contracts traceable for parties, shows the history of changes, and limits the cumbersome process like scanning, emailing or even faxing completed back and forth to one another.”

Micheal Spinosa, Unleashed Technologies

4. Think of Software Tools for Automation

Get software tools like CRM systems, management systems, or marketing automation tools to automate the processes of your business. It could help you delegate better, track time and also help in business analysis. Many companies use varied software systems and tools to optimize their business and automate processes where these options are growing number while getting better. This not only saves time and effort but also brings organization and synergy.

“This year, we are heavily focused on user experience. As a part of that, we are sending all incoming inquiries to directly drop into SalesForce and assign a representative immediately, so we can be alerted right away and create a faster response time.”
Jayna Cooke, Eventup

5. Get an Expert to do IT

Yes, this will require an expert advice. Whether you are choosing from the available online tools or system solution or get a customized solution. You will need a Software Expert in business automation in order to get results suiting to the needs of your business type. The Software Expert will conduct a requirement analysis and suggest which tool or system is good for automation of a particular area, then be it communication or marketing. You shall get the right advice and the investment is optimally utilized.

Well, automating your business is a need now. You cannot function in this digital ear without a tech support. You need it and you need it now, so that your business is not left behind in the race of offering services or communicating in the contemporary ways. Make sure, you go AUTO now and breathe a sigh of relief.

Joomla! Releases a Secured and Improved Version 3.7.3

Joomla is an award winning CMS and has been powering websites of all sizes and shapes including corporate websites, ecommerce websites, government sites and many more. For smooth and secured functioning of your Joomla site, the company has released version 3.7.3 which is essentially a security update.

What’s new in version 3.7.3?

In its latest version Joomla has tried its best to address security issues as well as many bugs. Here’s what new in the latest version as per our team of Joomla specialists:

Vulnerabilities addressed

1) Core - XSS Vulnerability

In Joomla CMS versions 1.5.0 to 3.6.5, inadequate filtering of multibyte characters is leading to cross-scripting vulnerabilities in various components. Although, this issue is not that severe, it has been fixed in the current release.

2) Core – Information disclosure

In versions 1.7.3 to 3.7.2 of Joomla, form contents are getting disclosed because of improper cache invalidation. The CMS Company fixed this issue which is essentially severe, in this latest release and all have been instructed to upgrade to the latest version.

3) Core – XSS Vulnerability

In previous versions of Joomla i.e., 1.7.3 to 3.7.2, there has been a severe issue of improper input validation and missing CSRF token checks which in turn resulted in XSS vulnerability.

Several bugs fixed

There have been many bug fixes and you can have a look at the full list of bug fixes by visiting GitHub.

Volunteers invited!

Joomla has thanked everyone who has contributed to the successful release of Joomla 3.7.3. Furthermore, they have added that if you want to make the future releases better you can give your direct contribution; how?

By joining the volunteer community as a:

  • Tester: You need not have special skill sets for volunteering as a tester. Just you would need to install test releases and follow reporting instructions. 
  • Translator: You would need to help them translate in English or any other language.
  • Technical writer: You can volunteer in writing tutorials and documenting new features. 
  • Find your area: If you do not fit in the aforementioned areas then you can volunteer in areas that fit your skills and interests.
The next releases of Joomla, version 3.8, 3.9 and 4.0 have already been planned and worked on. So, you can contribute your time and skill to Joomla in any of the above mentioned areas.
Now it’s your turn
Have you upgraded your CMS to this latest version of Joomla? Please let us know about your experience with this award-winning CMS by leaving your comments below.

Understanding Solution Architecture [Infographic] By Helios


Six Common Magento 2 Issues with their Specific Solutions

Magento has emerged as the number one commerce platform in the world. The leading brands love Magento as it offers the flexibility to customize your platform to suit your unique business needs. It also allows you to create unique experiences for your customers and adapt fast to their changing buying patterns.
In November 2015, Magento 2 was released to the world which was an improvement over its beta release. The company had taken great care to resolve the issues developers were confronting with the beta version. In spite of that few issues were left as discussed below:

1. Installation issues

Before you begin your Magento installation, refer tutorial. If you want to install Magento via the command-line interface (CLI) then it’s recommended that you go through the Magento installation guide. In the document step by step procedure has been clearly mentioned to help you install Magento software via CLI. In case, you come across any Magento issues its better to refer a Magento certified solution specialist.

2. Clearing CSS cache

Sometimes the effect of CSS updates is not reflected on the front page. However, you can sort this out by running the following commands in the Magento 2 root directory:
rm -rf var/di/* var/generation/* var/cache/* var/log/* var/page_cache/* var/session/* var/view_preprocessed/* pub/static/*
php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy
php bin/magento cache:clean
php bin/magento cache:flush 

3. Re-indexing

Have you encountered messages like,“One or more indexes are fully invalid”? Do not worry; this issue can be easily resolved. In the root directory of Magento 2 run the below mentioned command:
php bin/magento indexer:reindex 

4. Ecommerce site is slow

If the speed of your site is slow, the most probable reason could be JavaScript and CSS. If you minimize their amount the issue will be resolved.
Under the Advanced tab, click on Developer; then under settings section – Enable JavaScript Bundling. Put yes, in the field of Minify JavaScript files. Similarly, Minify CSS files and put ‘yes’ in the field of merge CSS files.

5. Forgot admin password

Forgot Magento 2 admin password? Nothing to worry as you can easily recover it by following these instructions. Locate admin_user table in your Magento 2 database and replace the existing password with a new one. Keep in mind to insert your password in MD5 function.

6. Redirect in order to open through WWW

Go to your Magento 2 directory and open .htaccess file located inside the same. There figure out the “RewriteEngine on” line and paste the below mentioned code right after that line:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
After completing this remember to save the .htaccess file. Now log in to the administrative end of your Magento store. There go to Stores > Configuration > General and then click on the Web button. There under the General tab unfold the “Base URLs (secure)” set of options and change the “Secure Base URL” option from https://domain.com to https://www.domain.com.
Save the changes and now on your Magento 2 web shop will run with https://www.domain.com only.
Magento 2 stores issues often demand some technical knowledge, but nothing to ponder about as help is just a few clicks away. You can consult experts adept at delivering Magento development solutions and get your issues resolved.

Wrapping up

Are you confronting any Magento issues at your e-Store? Do let us know by leaving your comments below. Our Magento experts would love to help you out.

WordPress Specialists Reveal What to Expect in WordPress 4.8

The official beta release of WordPress 4.8 will be here today, May12, 2017, anytime! This means we won’t be able to add any new features until the final release of WordPress 4.8. However, we are excited to tell you that the final version of WordPress 4.8 will be here around June 8, 2017, as per the release schedule. This will be the first major release from WordPress this year.


Now, you have a reason to smile. The text widget in WordPress 4.8 is coming with a simple visual and text editor. Now adding links, emphasizing i.e. making text bold or italic, or creating lists can be done easily without having to write any HTML code.

Our WordPress specialists are eager to share the new features they have explored in the beta version using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin.

Visual editor in text widget

WordPress, by default, comes with a plain text widget with a simple text box which lets you add text and HTML code. If you are not conversant with HTML then you would definitely find it difficult to add links or use basic formatting.

Image widget

The current version of WordPress lets you display an image in sidebar only if you use a plugin or write HTML. This will change in WordPress 4.8 as a new image widget will be introduced.
This will enable you to easily add images to WordPress sidebar by uploading an image right from the widget or from the WordPress media library.


Once click on the “select image” button, the WordPress media uploader popup will open where you can upload or select an image. You will be able to see a preview of the image, once it is inserted, in the widget area.

Video widget

WordPress 4.8 will also introduce a video widget similar to the image widget mentioned above. It will allow you to easily upload video in the WordPress sidebar or display video from YouTube, vimeo or any other video hosting provider for that matter.


Our WordPress specialists recommend that you should always use a video hosting provider like Youtube or vimeo instead of uploading videos to your WordPress site. This is because uploading a video on your site would cost you bandwidth and you would also miss the video quality optimization that these hosting sites do for better web experience. Moreover, it is easy to share embedded videos.

You can just click on the “Select Video” button as shown in the screenshot above and then click on “Insert from URL” link. 



Then paste the URL of the video you want to embed and click on the “Add to widget” button. The media uploader popup will vanish and you will see a thumbnail preview of your video inside the widget, as shown in the screenshot.

News and events dashboard widget

Your current WordPress news widget which only updates you about WordPress news will be replaced by a new news and events dashboard widget in WordPress 4.8. This will also appear on your WordPress dashboard page. However, it will not only contain information about WordPress news but also about WordPress events near your location (see screenshot below).

    
In case, there are multiple users on your site then this widget will show them events based on their location. The user’s location will be automatically detected by sending their timezone, locale, and IP address to api.wordpress.org. However, you can manually edit the location to view events from any other location.

Are you ready?

You must be eagerly waiting for this major WordPress release of 2017. Which aforementioned features you find fascinating? Being an OutsourcingWordPress Development agency based in India, we would love to hear from you!
 


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