The Role of SharePoint in Your Business’s Digital Strategy

The digital marketing strategy of modern businesses focuses mainly on customer relationship management and customer engagement. Often businesses look for innovative customer relationship management (CRM) systems to enable their marketing, sales and customer service professionals to build long lasting customer relations. The right CRM solution can help your business in implementing a personalized customer engagement model to engage the customers and deliver higher customer satisfaction. Businesses across the world rely on SharePoint as a smart CRM platform to optimize its digital marketing strategy.

Why SharePoint can Optimize Your Business’s Digital Marketing Strategy?

Simple and Attractive Interface: SharePoint 2013 comes with an interface that is clean, simple and easy-to-use. While accessing the interface, users can avail the universal navigation feature of Office 365 navigation. As the interfaces supports touchscreens, it becomes easier for users to access it on their mobile devices. Also, they can use Office Web Apps to edit and drag-and-drop documents.

Mobile Experience: The latest version of SharePoint also renders site based on the user’s mobile device, and accommodate mobile web browsing. With more and more users accessing internet on their smartphones, tablets and phablets, the feature makes the interface effective in staying connected to their work on-the-go. At the same time, the user can view the interface in both landscape and portrait display modes, while accessing push notifications and location services.

Easy to Share Information and Ideas: SharePoint 2013 is also designed with a set of social network-like features. The authorized users can publish their Office documents to SharePoint, and share the files with others. The interface further allows them to post activity updates, share ideas, check what members of the team are working on, and get answers from their colleagues. Further, they can use their mobile devices to share their ideas and documents on the go.

Option to Organize Projects and Tasks: The professionals also use SharePoint as a CRM system to arrange their projects and tasks. Once they organize the tasks and projects, those will appear as upcoming deliverables across SharePoint, Outlook and MS Project. A business, at the same time, can set up a team site to gather the documents and emails of the teams in a centralized location. The documents can be further synchronized across the conventional and mobile devices through Microsoft SkyDrive.

Design and Publish Public-Facing Websites: An organization can create a public-facing website by availing the streamlined design features of SharePoint 2013. Microsoft has further updated SharePoint with an improved Content Management System (CMS) to make it easier for users to publish a variety of content. Thus, an organization can create community sites to enable its sales and marketing teams to share and collaborate with others.

Integrated Search: The latest version of allows businesses to effectuate document management and collaboration through a super fast search engine called FAST. As FAST is now embedded in SharePoint 2013, the users can avail the advantages of the super fast search engine without incurring any additional expenses. Also, FAST comes with a set of features that make the searching process more efficient and faster. For instance, the users can use the thumbnail preview option to browse through the documents without opening those up.

Enhanced Stability and Security: The updated version of SharePoint is compatible with several operating systems and mobile devices. So the users can access the web interface by using any of the major web browsers on Windows or Mac. It also comes with workflow advancements to eliminate the chances of system outage. The authentication enhancements further contribute towards optimizing both security and connectivity.

Most businesses, nowadays, deploy distributed teams to reduce project overheads. Microsoft has updated SharePoint 2013 with features to complement the needs of distributed teams, and help them in working together. Further, the users can start using SharePoint site without requiring any additional or specialized training.

You can hire developers from top custom sharepoint development companies in India who can help you build your projects within allocated budget and time schedules.

We provide sharepoint application development services. If you would like to know more about the experience of our sharepoint developers, please get in touch with Mindfire Solutions.

Why is Python gaining popularity among programmers?

Python, the high level interpreted programming language is also noted for its strength in server side scripting. This object-oriented dynamic language is often compared with Microsoft’s .NET and Java based languages and pitted as similar to these two. It can be used for software development of various types. It lends excellent support to integrate with other technologies, showing high productivity all through its development life cycle. This open source language is growing at a rapid pace. The pseudo code and Python code resemble each other. Even multi programmer development teams find the language quite readable- all thanks to the syntax rules as well as elegant design.

The interactive as well as portable language can be easily learned. It offers a number of benefits including dynamic semantics as well as rapid prototyping capabilities which have resulted in the language gaining popularity very rapidly. Some of the notable features which have resulted in the popularity are given here.

Straightforward support- Python has a great community which provides good support to the users. Since the code can be accessed freely by anyone and everyone, millions of developers all across the globe function hard to locate bugs so that they can be fixed accordingly. This results in fresh enhancements being added to it.

Integration- Python is multi-functional- it helps in easy development of web services, direct calling from and to C++, C or Java codes, providing of powerful capabilities for process control, invoking of CORBA or COM components, easy implementation of all internet protocols along with embedding of processes XML, data formats as well as other mark up languages as scripting language. The same byte code can be run on every modern operating system.

Readability- Python’s syntax is clear and easily readable. Its organization makes it imperative for programmers to maintain some order. The code can be easily understood by both experts as well as beginners, which makes it easy to become productive very rapidly. The development as well as prototyping any program is easy. The cross platform portability also makes it easy to simply code one time and then deploy it to several environments. In fact, there are lesser dialects in this language than most other popular languages like Perl.

Quick coding- Several tasks that normally have to be taken by other languages can be skipped here. Eventually the program maintenance is low in cost. The code can even be quickly adapted. Python is often known as ready-to-run language in which the simple code can be easily played with and tested.

Object-oriented- Generally scripting and programming languages have varied object-orientation support. But all the aspects of this language are designed as object-oriented. The programming process may be started by using non-OO structures. This programming is simple as well as beneficial for all.

Portability- Python runs across a variety of systems. Not only that, the interface is quite similar on various platforms. The language design is not specifically attached to some particular operating system. Thus Python program can be written easily on a particular operating system, tested on some other system and uploaded just as easily to another system.

Reusability- Program can be reused since the modules and packages are implemented carefully. There is a gigantic set of modules innovated and offered as Standard Library that forms a major part of the distribution of Python. The functionality can be shared simply between various programs through breaking up into several modules to reuse them as parts of other particular programs.

There are several programming languages available these days. Some popular languages are Java and C. However, the process of writing, testing, compiling as well as recompiling in them can be extremely slow and laboriously complicated. Python is fun to use, easily learnable and has enough power to handle even the most complicated tasks. So when the programmers find it hard to choose between the several options, most of them opt for Python. It has become a useful companion for many which accounts for its rising popularity.

You can hire programmers from top python development companies in India who can help you build products within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide python development services. If you would like to hire python developers from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

New features in FileMaker 13. Is it going to meet your requirement?

FileMaker Pro can be defined as a relational database application compatible across various platforms that was designed as well as developed by FileMaker Inc. The application is used to integrate a particular database engine with an interface that is GUI based. This provides the users a unique option of modifying the database by dragging a new set of elements into screens, forms or layouts. Now the current version, Pro 13 comes with some latest features that are handy when it comes to meeting business needs of clients.

Let us discuss the features and see how they will meet the clients’ requirements.

Redesigned Layout

The latest version comes up with features that offer an option to the users to create customized layouts as well as reports that are specifically optimized for iPhones as well as iPads. The feature also helps incorporation of predefined screen dimensions, views, themes and sets. All these in turn help businesses by making the process of designing various iOS devices much easier.

Popovers
It also has the feature that helps creating iOS-style popovers for iPads, iPhones and desktops to group links, fields as well as other information without the need of moving to other windows or layouts.

Slide Control
The new version also helps in creating controls of multi-panel slides that can be used for managing images along with various other information or data in separate slide panels within the same layout. It also provides the option of swiping for navigating between one panel to another on FileMaker Go.

New iOS Keyboards
The latest version comes up with 7 new keyboards so as to match the data type that the user needs to collect. The new keyboard types that the latest version comes up with, include number, URL, phone etc.

Bar Code Scanner
This feature provides a unique option of automatically scanning the bar codes by using iPhones or iPads with FileMaker Go without the need of any plug in. Besides, it also gives the liberty to access the scanned data from the desktop.

The new version of FileMaker helps the business to develop customized solutions that are unique besides being professionally designed. They are gorgeous and hence, extremely compelling from the customers’ point of view, which in turn helps the businesses. The data becomes easily sharable as well as manageable. This makes them more productive, which also helps the business in more than a way.

Customized Themes
This feature helps to modify as well as save changes to the existing layout themes. Thus, it helps the themes to match the exact business requirements. The themes are reusable across various solutions and can be shared with others in the business fraternity.

Built-in themes
The new version also comes up with 11 brand new as well as ready-to-use themes, which are a part of the 51 themes that the platform is equipped with. This helps the business to design customized solutions that are specifically meant for desktop, iPhone and iPod.

New Set of Styles
The new themes have new styles that are rich with new sets of innovative colors, text sizes, fonts that can be applied to certain objects like buttons, backgrounds, as well as fields. This helps the business solutions by giving them a consistent and professional look and this naturally helps in promotion of the business to a large extent. There is the option of choosing from a large variety of predefined styles and customize them to meet the specific business needs and save it. These changes can also be modified if and when needed.

New style of layout and theme saving
The enhanced options of managing styles as well as themes help in formatting the styles to layout various objects, parts, backgrounds and other properties for promoting a consistent look all through the business solutions.

Content Object Visibility
This offers the option of hiding as well as showing various layout objects through the process of indication of whether an object is displayed or hidden depending upon a specific calculation or situation.

There are a number of other new features that offer a wide range of advantages and option to come up with improved business solution. However, discussed above are the most prominent ones that the new version of FileMaker Pro comes up with – the ones, which meet the customized business solutions.

You can hire developers from top custom filemaker development companies in India who can help you for your requirements within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide filemaker database development services. If you would like to discuss with our expert filemaker developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Why is Java considered as the most secure language?

The development language called Java is used mainly for the creation of software which may be used regularly. Most people have downloaded some program or the other that requires Java runtime. The design of the platform puts strong emphasis on the security factor. The core of the language is type-safe, providing automatic garbage collection to enhance the application code’s robustness. A verification mechanism and secure class loading ensures the execution of legitimate Java codes only. Initially the platform version resulted in the creation of safe environment to run codes that are potentially untrusted like Java applets that have been downloaded from public networks. With the widening as well as growth of the range of deployment, there has been corresponding evolvement of its security architecture so that a bigger range of services can be supported. The architecture constitutes of a large number of tools, APIs as well as algorithms, protocols and mechanisms that may be implemented.

The platform has a set of APIs that span major security areas counting public key infrastructure, cryptography, secure communication, access control as well as authentication.

Public Key Infrastructure- PKI for short, this refers to a framework which enables secure information exchange through public key cryptography. Identities are bound to digital certificates, providing a means to verify authenticity of certificates. Certificates, keys, trusted Certification Authorities which generate as well digitally sign certificates and public key encryptions are encompassed by PKI. It has two tools in-built called keytool which is used for the creation as well as management of key stores and jarsigner which is used for signing or verifying signatures of JAR files.

Cryptography- This framework helps to access as well as develop cryptographic functionality. There are some APIs which render many kinds of cryptographic services that include symmetric bulk encryption, message digest algorithm, symmetric stream encryption, digital signature algorithm, elliptic curve cryptology, password based encryption, key generators, key agreement algorithms and message authentication codes.

Secure communication- Data travelling across network is susceptible to security risks since anybody can access it; it is especially a risky business if the data is concerned with private information like credit card numbers or passwords. So the data must be made unintelligible so that unauthorized parties cannot understand it. You should also ensure that the data is being sent to the appropriate party without any intentional or unintentional modification during transport. For the best secure communication, cryptography acts as a base through SSL/TLS, SASL, Kerberos and GSS-API.

Access control- This ensures that the Java platform is protected from access to sensitive application code or sensitive resources. A security manager mediates all decisions for access control. APIs that help in this process are permissions, access control enforcement and policy.

Authentication- The process helps in the determination of a user’s identity when a Java program is being executed. Sometimes login module plug-ins while in some cases cryptography related services, are needed for authentication.

Bytecode- After successful java program compilation, a class file is generated by java compiler with .class extension containing the program’s Bytecodes. The generated Bytecodes are secure which may be run on any JVM containing machine. There is a verifier which is invoked so as to ensure the execution of just legitimate bytecodes in Java runtime. It ensures that bytecodes and Java language conform to each other so that namespace restrictions or rules are not violated. Verifier also looks for stack overflows or underflows, memory management violations as well as illegal data typecasts. After verification, the execution may be conducted.

Java is often considered as the most secure language amongst all other languages. However, still some people feel that it is not secure since the plug-ins pose some problems. In fact, they certainly do that, but the inherent nature of the language is very secure. The security infrastructure is very strong with so many APIs and tools which contribute towards making it more secure than many other languages.

You can hire programmers from top java web application development companies in India who can help you build products within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide Java programming solutions. If you would like to discuss with an expert java developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Some of the biggest myths about Java

Java’s first version was launched in 1995 and since then several versions have been launched after fixing bugs as well as making improvements. Despite, being in the industry for such a long time, there are a lot of myths associated with Java since there are many people who will believe exactly what they want to believe, ignoring all better judgement. There have been much speculations, discussions as well as arguments related to various aspects of Java. This article aims to bust a few common myths that are associated with this language in the minds of people.

It is slow- A few people feel that this is slow in the start-up times, especially when compared with C++ or simple PHP applications. The applications may take some time for loading but the same can be said for .NET or other such big libraries. However, the latest Java update ensures that the loading time is much faster in comparison to the previous models. There is no point in comparing it to other programs as each has its own individual set of problems associated. C++ is the fastest but Java can be said to be faster than many other languages.

It is dead- This is said by a few since it has been in the industry for almost two decades and its last major release had been quite some time back. However, it is not fair to assume that it is dead just because of that since similar instances of no major releases can be found in C++ or Microsoft Windows. Other languages may evolve quite fast but you must remember that these languages are quite new, so they need much polishing to be done. Some people also cite that the language’s popularity is slipping through some indexes or statistics. But if investigated properly then it may be seen that these surveys are actually incomplete. They do not show the full truth, just investigate a few parameters.

Your hard drive may be read and files deleted by applets- The truth is that when applets attempt to access any local file, then a SecurityException will be thrown. The applets will crash if it is uncaught but without any file access occurring. Digitally signed applets that are granted with additional privileges, is the sole exception to this. A dialog box will be displayed by your browser to ask whether the applet author’s identity is accepted or not. If unsure it is best to choose no, to be safe.

Applets cannot be relied upon as differences in Internet Explorer and Netscape does not make writing stable applets a stable proposition- Different JVMs, various versions and kinds of browsers result in the varying behaviours of running applets. The users as well as developers may find the differences frustrating but the best solution for this is using single JVM to use across all browsers. This can be achieved by virtue of Java Plug-in which can bypass the JVM of browser to use its own, resulting in uniform performance.

Web browser is a must-have as Java cannot run without it- There are several forms of the code. Users are mostly familiar with applet running inside web browsers. But it is very simple to run Java application like normal programs. All you have to do is install JVM from some vendor to run the programs. A web server often runs Java servlets which may be termed as replacements for ASP or Active Server Pages as well CGI scripts. These are quite fast in fact and more efficient that CGI scripts.

Many people do not realize it, but there is a lot of potential in the language. There is more to the software than just applets. They are quite secure and hard drive will not be deleted. In case of any problem, installing plug-ins will help you solve them.

You can hire programmers from top java web development companies in India who can help you build products within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide java web application development services. If you would like to hire certified java developers from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.