Understanding the Relevance of Performance Testing in a Business

Before, people used to carry out the performance testing in order to check whether the software or machine is working as it should be and functional testing to check the software to make sure that it has all the required functionality. However, if we shed light on the working and performance testing criteria adopted in the 21st century, then it is safe to say that every organization wants to have valid and most reliable report of performance test carried out on the targeted machine.

Performance testing has definitely become one of the most crucial parts of every business process, no matter if it is linked with the technology, engineering system, and production department. Read on to understand why you, as a business owner, need performance testing and why this phenomenon is becoming very common for each and every business owner.

Why is Performance Testing Essential?

1.     Helps in Determining Productivity

Productivity of a system is highly dependent on the working of the entire system. If the device, software, or application is following the right guidelines and working in the similar manner then, it will be productive and will be able to generate desired results in the given time period. It is also very important to keep in mind that productivity should be given higher importance because it helps in gaining the confidence of the market and transforming their mind in the most profitable way.

2.     Helps in Getting Information About Response Time

Response time is one of the very crucial and result generating elements, which helps in understanding the time in which the software or hardware is capable of performing the task. Response time also helps in identifying the overall strength of the system and for how long it should be used for getting the consistent results.

Furthermore, response time also aids in getting information about the overall life of the system and its workability rate during those years.

3.     Helps in Verifying Manufacturer Claims

When a manufacturer or group of developers designs any software or hardware, they will claim that this particular system or machine is the most powerful and is capable of providing consistent reliability when it comes to its working mechanism. The only way of testing such claims by manufacturers is thru performance test.

This process will help you in recognizing the glitches in the software and what efforts were made by the developers for correcting the errors, which were previously causing problems to its operators/users.

4.     Helps in Gaining the Trust of the Market

It is a crucial aspect for every business owner to gain the trust of its market audience. Why? This is to make your customers aware of the fact that the services or products provided by your company are highly valuable and should be considered.

Performance testing therefore, aims a similar purpose. When you carry out a performance test and your targeted market is watching the results, then this process will easily help them see that the services that are being provided by a company is worthwhile.

So if you're considering to impress your market and to ensure that your products and/or services are worth your customers' time and money, then it's high time for you to implement performance testing on your own business or company.

Outsourcing Tech Support: Identifying What Works

Even with the rapid advancement of technology, companies of all sizes are facing increasing financial strain on budgets. One of the easiest ways for companies to save money is to outsource specific business operations to an outside management or support service provider. Thus, outsourcing technical support to an outside provider is something that every business should consider. It will not matter if your business is a fresh startup or a well-established organization because there are good reasons for outsourcing for any business.

The first benefit that will come to mind for those seeking for cost reduction is, of course, how to save money without sacrificing the company’s bottom line. Let’s set aside for a moment the cost of maintaining telephonic systems and paying for VOIP services, outsourcing your technical support to a professional third-party specialist transfers the cost burden associated with hiring and training tech support specialists, setting up resources, and maintaining systems to the outside specialist.

Outsourcing your technical support reduces the cost for additional employees your business faces, while also providing the peace of mind that knowledgeable, highly-trained professionals will assist your business when issues arise.

Next comes flexibility. As your business grows, you need your systems and infrastructure to keep pace so that customers don’t pay the price for problems that arise in service or coverage. If you keep your technical support service in-house, there are two potential problems involved when it comes to scalability.

If your business experiences rapid growth, you might struggle to find quality team members to work in your technical support group and clients will suffer through longer waits. On the flip side, if your company has too many technical support specialists, you are burning money on employees sitting around waiting to tackle problems that won’t immediately pop up.

By outsourcing your technical support to an outside vendor, you have transferred the responsibility for scaling up or down to them. You are paying them to add qualified staff during expansion or scale down services when contraction occurs. It is their responsibility to absorb those shocks and adjust on the fly.

And then, there is the concept of the company’s focus. Every company has a limited budget and limited resources, and those resources need to be able to tackle all of your business’s needs appropriately. Outsourcing your technical support services to a third-party professional tech support company can free up resources, funds, people, and infrastructure for use on core business processes.

Without the burden of staffing, funding, and maintaining a technical support group, your company can focus its efforts on perfecting its core business processes to ensure clients are receiving the best possible services and products directly from your company.

IT Support: An Opportunity for Businesses to Promote Growth for their Clients

IT support is important for any business, particularly in terms of improving customer service and promoting growth for clients. If you want to keep customers happy and grow your business, here are a few reasons that discuss the importance of outsourcing to a professional IT company:

It helps maintain first-call resolution strategy

Although it’s just human nature to seek for help, this is a simple reminder for companies to always provide good customer service, whether through phone, e-mail, chat, or service center support. Support can be a selling point of the company. Sadly, not all companies focus on providing excellent after-sales service. Exemplary customer or technical service is a tough competition. One negative feedback can destroy the whole company. This is the reason why it is also important for a customer to know what kind of support the company offers before purchasing the product. Since not all companies can maintain a large IT department to maintain first-call resolutions, businesses can outsource their tech support to third-party vendors.

It helps increase sales

A company can increase its sales if they have an exceptional technical support team. This is why some companies even get help by outsourcing professional tech support companies. A good technical support is when a company provides user-friendly assistance to its consumers. The technical support team is composed of individuals who are experts of the products that can assist customers accordingly.

With every technology-related item introduced to a company for the purpose of increasing work output, the more a company should instill a world-class after-sales service. Every company MUST have a great team of support representatives even if this small group is further supported by outsourced services from a third-party vendor. Thus, companies can opt for tech support outsourcing with a reputable Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company. These outsourcing companies can offer businesses technical support depending on their specific needs.

Below are usually the main factors to consider before outsourcing your IT services:

§  Know the different technical support services that an outsourcing company can provide to your customers.

§  Know the flowchart procedure of the outsourcing or BPO company in terms of recruiting, hiring, training, and managing because most outsourcing tech support companies will only hire professional or licensed tech support personnel.

§  Know the overall culture of the BPO company if it aligns with the company’s beliefs and values.

Never underestimate the power of outsourcing

There’s nothing wrong with outsourcing your IT support to third-party company because not all businesses can afford or have the budget to hire and maintain a separate IT team even if dedicate to customer support. The resources and infrastructure alone will be enormously costly, not to mention the fact of hiring and paying additional employees.

In the end, having a brilliant IT team, even if outsourced, is definitely a good business practice for any small or medium-sized business.

How to Take Advantage of Instagram's Latest Features for Your Marketing

In the past six years, Instagram has evolved into a more user-friendly and dynamic app. And since it is one of the most popular forms of social networking, it has undoubtedly became a favorite among almost all entrepreneurs. The app is a convenient platform to promote products and services. With its latest updates, advertising has never been so exciting.

So here are the new features Instagram has recently released that you can maximize for your marketing purposes.

You can link Instagram to the Facebook Page of Your Business

Instagram gives business owners a chance to make the most out of their social media accounts. Now, you can link your profile to your Facebook page, which makes communication easier. Because of this feature, your followers can easily go back and forth your FB and Instagram page to get the latest updates, promos, and deals from your company. To further optimize your Instagram account, you can ask Vibbi for assistance.

Instagram Stories are Becoming More Viral

Instagram Stories is a great marketing tool in giving live updates or featuring limited promos.

You can give your followers sneak product previews that will excite them the most. You can also give out limited offers through stories. Lastly, you can also use stories to drive traffic to your social media accounts. These will make them feel more connected to your brand. Be creative in using this feature, and you'll gain many hearts in no time.

So why did the developers come up with Instagram Stories? It is made as a solution to overposting in Instagram. In other words, you can now post as often as you like without flooding your profile or your friends' newsfeeds.

To use Instagram Stories you first need to tap the plus sign located in the upper left corner of your screen. Then, you can take a photo by tapping the round button once and a video by long pressing the button for 10 seconds. You have the option to doodle on your photo or even add an emoji and a filter. You have more advanced color options by long pressing one of the colors to choose your desired shade.

When done, you can tap the check icon to share your story. You have the option to save your masterpiece by opening it and tapping the three dots located at the bottom right portion. Select the Save Photo option.

Finally, you can check who checked your story by swiping up as you view the photo or video. You can tap the x mark next to the name of someone on your list to block them from seeing your stories. You can also go directly to your Settings and choose to hide your Story from certain people.

10 Distinct Business Ideas to Motivate You This 2017

If you want to hit it big as an entrepreneur, you need to either solve a current problem or fulfill a need -- even if it's one consumers didn't know they had. There are lots of business ideas you can come up with -- from faux-handwritten thank-you notes to a Tinder-like app for rescuing pets, you'll be surely inspired to start a business venture with these unique lines of business.

Fetal Greetings

The greeting card business has been huge for years, and it seems to get bigger with every passing holiday. Fetal Greetings offer a special opportunity for expecting mothers: To have their baby greet the world in a form of a card! Hooly Nill-McKay started the company in 1999, and while the idea may sound strange, it's actually a great example of a unique and clever idea that builds on an existing industry. The cards themselves are cute, and they make wonderful surprises to send to family and friends to announce a pregnancy.

Shareable office space

Every day, technology makes it more and more possible for employees and entrepreneurs to do their jobs and run their businesses from anywhere, which means businesses don't necessarily have to invest in their own office space. WeWork provides office space for the office-less, with flexible month-to-month membership options for everyone from individual freelancers to large companies. Freelancers who prefer to work outside of their homes can have a more reliable work space than a local coffee shop, and companies and other teams can have a place to collaborate and hold meetings and events, for instance. WeWork, which as founded in 2010, has locations in more than a dozen cities across the United States as well as locations in Israel, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company also fosters a sense of community among its members, so you can network with peers and customers while saving money on rent and other fees that come with maintaining your own office space.

Tinder for dogs

Borrowing a page from popular dating app Tinder, BarkBuddy makes it easy to find and adopt the perfect dog for you. Users tell BarkBuddy what they're looking for in the perfect pup, and then swipe yes or no on different profiles of dogs in their area. Once you've found the right dog, you can set up and meet and greet through the app. The company see to it that everyone using the app is qualified to adopt, too. You have to fill out an adopter file to be approved first; otherwise, you won't be eligible to adopt.

Bedside service

Being pregnant can be a physically and mentally exhausting nine months for a lot of women. In the hope of making pregnancy a little bit easier, Stephanie D. Johnson founded Bed Rest Concierge as an answer to these needs. The business provides a wide variety of pre- and post-delivery services, including creating and managing a baby registry, birth announcement creation and distribution, nursery design, diaper delivery service, laundry service, and hospital preparation. Aside from these, Bed Rest Concierge offers a number of "pampering services," such as manicures, pedicures, and facials.

Individually packaged small items

While bigger might be better for some, Minimus takes a different approach. In operation for nearly a decade now, this online company offers more than 2,500 different individually packaged products, including travel-size toiletries and individual servings of various food items -- everything from chips to Tabasco sauce. When it was founded, Minimus did not have any employees and was housed in 500-square-foot space. Today, the company takes up two large Los Angeles warehouses and employs dozens of workers. Aside from the individual items, Minimus sells premade kits specially designed for different uses, such as baby and family kits, outdoor kits, first-aid kits and military-care packages.

Personalized thank-you cards

Saying thank you has never been easier with the help of Thankster. The online business lets users easily create personalized thank-you cards with simulated, authentic-looking handwriting. The service gives users the ability to pick and choose from a variety of handwriting styles in order to best match their own. For consumers, Thankster is great for sending thank-you cards for weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduations, and baby or bridal showers. Many businesses use the service to send personalized "handwritten" notes to valued clients, customers, partners and employees. After the notes are finished, Thankster stuffs, stamps, and sends out the letters to their intended recipients.

Classy Restrooms on-the-go

For some events, the typical green and cramped portable toilet just isn't enough. ElizaJ rents out high-quality, clean, and attractive portable restrooms for any outdoor event. Each of ElizaJ's individual restrooms include fresh flowers, designer soaps and lotions, name-brand paper products, wicker waste baskets, air fresheners, and fresh water. The company recently unveiled it's newest restroom called "The Powder Room," which can accommodate events of up to 350 people and is designed to compete with those in the finest restaurants and department stores. ElizaJ has also launched a franchising model to give other entrepreneurs the opportunity to run their own portable restroom operation.

Personalized tea

Design A Tea offers consumers the ability to design their own tea blend from scratch. Founded in 2007 by J. Brian Pfeiffer, the online business lets tea drinkers choose from among 40 flavors that can be mixed and matched to create their own artisan tea blend. Shoppers first select a base flavor -- black, oolong, green, or rooibos -- and then mix in two other ingredients, such as almond, Irish creme, passion fruit, rum, or wintergreen. In total, there are more than 10,000 different combinations tea drinkers can create. As part of its mission, Design A Tea has adopted numerous socially responsible practices, including using recycled paper products, labels and environmentally friendly inks. All of their tea flavors are 100 percent natural, organic, and gluten-free.

I Do Now I Don't

Every day, there are couples in love who get engaged. And every day, couples who have fallen out of love separate or break an engagement. When the latter happened to Josh Opperman, his fiancee was kind enough to return the engagement ring, and he didn't know what to do with it. Since the wholesale markups on engagement rings are insanely high, he would have taken a huge loss in returning it. So instead, he started his business, I Do Now I Don't, which is an online marketplace for unwanted engagement rings. Customers can buy rings at prices far cheaper than you would find in a traditional jewelry or department store, and you can sell at rates that are better than you'd get if you tried to return the ring. Business started booming, and now you can buy and sell other jewelry items there, too.

Something Store

Do you love the feeling of waiting for something to come in the mail? Well if you do, then you have to try the Something Store. For $10 (no shipping cost), they send you a random item. It could be anything in the world. Since 2007, they've shipped over 50,000 "somethings" to customers who wait with anxious anticipation.

Why You Need to Avoid Buying Fake Chargers for Your Device

It always boggle the mind and defy logic when people go out of their pockets to spend a large amount to buy a top quality product like a smartphone or tablet, and not spend just a little bit more for an official spare or replacement charger. Remember that not only are you putting money in the pockets of illegal counterfeiting product makers, but you are also endangering the lives and property of those around you, including yourself.

Another way to put it is that while the central issue of NOT BUYING fake chargers or counterfeit chargers is SAFETY, as well as protecting your own life and the life of others, when you buy officially manufactured chargers, you are denying much needed cash to counterfeiters and smugglers to continue their illegal nefariousness.

Fake chargers are not well insulated

Official chargers of official brands are well insulated. This is important in terms of safety to ensure that the charger runs efficiently with no issues. Counterfeit chargers offer bare-bones insulation at best, and that leaves fake products susceptible to fire or explosions when it overheats.

Fake chargers pump out less charging current

Fake chargers can only pump out a maximum of 5.9W of charging electricity. This means that it takes much longer to charge your device, assuming the fake charger doesn’t overheat and catch fire. Genuine chargers will pump out 10W so charging times is around 2-3 hours at the most.

Genuine manufacturers will replace official chargers for small cost

Genuine brands have recently been announcing a sort of “takeback program” wherein it will replace its official chargers should the customer feel that it poses any safety issues, and dispose of it. The customer will then be issued a new official charger for a fraction of the former retail price. Customers are advised to always purchase official chargers to avoid any untoward fire or explosions.

The very cheap prices of fake chargers aren’t worth the risk

Everyone loves sales or bargains, but when it comes to gadgets, devices, and especially chargers, the cheaper price of fake chargers isn’t worth the risk compared to buying an official charger. Besides, logic dictates that if you’re already familiar with the price of, say, an Apple iPad, and you see one being sold for a dirt cheap price, chances are that the cheap iPad is fake. The same goes with chargers. Not everything you buy cheap is a quality bargain or sale.

Be aware of availability

While gadgets and devices are available from licensed and approved retailers (take note of licensed and approved), official replacement or official spare chargers may be available only from the manufacturer’s direct store, such as an Apple Store, Samsung Store, and so on. So if you’re planning to buy a charger from an unknown store called P-Noy’s Electronics that sells chargers made in the Philippines or Beijing Store that sells chargers made in China, you’re better off contacting or looking for your gadget’s official store.

Encourage Your Sales Force By Implementing These 6 Ways

A motivated sales force can exceed your expectations when it comes to revenue and profit. So how do you encourage them to go and beyond? Check out below for suggestions on how you can do so.

1. Foster a team environment

Many companies find that a team mindset can provide great results. Do your sales people feel like a team or is everyone out there a lone ranger? Even if the nature of your business requires people to work individually, there is value in having a shared sales goal and business identity.

When people communicate, they can also begin to collaborate better. Senior salespeople can help junior salespeople. Sales conferences, group training, team meetings, team building events, and social gatherings can all help you foster a better team environment.

2. Coach and mentor them

Sales is an evolving role. Today it's not about just selling but about fostering relationships with customers. Foster relationships with your sales people and you'll get better results for them just like you will with your clients.

Coaching and training sales staff can result in significant improvement in results. People respond to individual feedback on performance. You may consider implementing one-on-one meetings on a monthly basis with all of your salespeople, for example. This is where you can give praise when it's due and help struggling salespeople overcome challenges as well.

3. Create some friendly competition

Salespeople tend to be competitive by nature and motivated by money. Internal contests can inspire great results and can also be a great way to foster team collaboration, too. Regular contests can make a big difference in the mindset and the morale of your sales team.

4. Listen to their pain points

Regular sales staff meetings and individual one-on-one meetings can help address issues and problems that your salespeople are experiencing. Listen to your salespeople and act on their concerns. A happy and steam lined sales team will lead to motivated and long lasting employees.

5. Give them the tools they need to succeed

Do you have outdated sales tools? Do your sales tracking, CRM, and order fulfillment tools help salespeople do their jobs or do they make life difficult or just add another step in their day? Upgrading to the right sales tools can help your staff become better at what they do. Your efforts of continuously improving processes in the company can translate to a salesperson being able to continuously improve his or her results.

6. Show them the money and appreciation

Recognize excellence with compensation. You can do this with cash, gifts, plaques of appreciation, and so on. This probably seems pretty obvious but how long has it been since you reviewed your company's compensation plan? Is it considered competitive for your industry? Are you rewarding the performers and inspiring those who are struggling to try a little harder? Regularly review compensation and incentives to make sure you are continue to inspire people through rewarding excellence.

Whether you implement some of these suggestions or all of them, continually working to motivate your staff can yield some great results sooner or later.