Companies are relying on software for just about everything, to the point that everyone has become, to some degree, a software company. In a new survey of 600 IT and business professionals, two-thirds say that software now drives their company’s most important decisions. Close to one-quarter say the quality of their software — the kind it uses or sells — is paramount to their companies’ success and ability to grow.

But are these companies doing enough to ensure the quality and performance of their software? In the past, appliance manufacturers ultimately paid the penalty for shipping faulty washing machines or refrigerators, clothing producers wouldn’t last long selling low-quality fabrics and stitching, and so on.

Now that everyone is in the software business, is there enough attention being paid to this prime product? Unfortunately, not yet, the survey, sponsored by QASymphony, finds. While the survey’s sponsor has a horse in this race (they offer quality assurance automation tools), it’s worth noting that the results point to a pressing need — organizations have changed their business models over the past decade, but are not paying enough attention to their emerging digital sides.

Perhaps there are lessons that need to be learned from the technology industry in designing, producing and securing software. At least 63% say that software companies have their own way of operating, which needs to be examined and emulated where appropriate.

For example, concepts such as Agile development and DevOps are a big deal in the native software industry. That means lots of time and investment in versioning, fixing bugs, and updates. It means more emphasis on shipping software as quickly as possible to achieve time to market, while ensuring quality and usability. IT means automating as much of the software development and release process as possible.

It’s not that companies aren’t working on the challenges. Close to nine in 10 (88%) now employ DevOps methodologies, and 42% strongly agree that DevOps is a top priority for their organizations. However, only 24% express strong satisfaction in the current state of their DevOps programs.

Two-thirds say there are gaps in their software testing, and that as much as half of all time spent by their companies on software development time is consumed by ensuring code quality and/or fixing software bugs. A similar number agree that their testing processes are slowing their time to market.

There are some other traits seen with software companies not covered in the survey that also should be studied. On the plus side, the tech culture that exists within vendors is often very open to innovation, and new approaches to solving problems. For every issue, there is a workaround, most often involving technology — and industry leaders are never afraid to try new things. At the same time, a tech-driven company won’t succeed without solid marketing to help it elevate its products above the noise. But a tech culture isn’t necessarily conducive to marketing, and it’s often a challenge to bring these two sides together.

Source=: www.zdnet.com/article…………….

Everyone knows that technology can help raise your business to the next level. The use of cloud computing and the availability of supporting softwares are making businesses – from small startups to large corporations – strive in the face of evolution. There are so many solutions to choose from as well, particular when it comes to its enterprise-level ERP softwares

…

Continue Reading

Listen. If you are even remotely connected to the business, marketing, and advertising world, then you’ve probably heard the phrase “content marketing.”

…

Continue Reading

SEO blogs and articles are a really, really important part of our online PR services and social media management. At The Content Factory, we write around 40 SEO blogs and articles per week for our clients — not including landing pages — and each one helps drive traffic to their websites. Regularly posting fresh content on your site is one of the easiest ways to introduce potential customers or clients to your brand.

Of course, you can’t just throw a bunch of words on a page and expect people to come running. Pro SEO article writing services know that if you build it, they will come…but only if you build it the right way.

Here are the 7 secrets of professional SEO article writers:

1. Get your keyword research on. If you’re going to post content on your site anyway, you might as well take the time to make sure Google takes notice of your effort. Find out which keywords and phrases people are searching for (as well as what you can be competitive in), and make yourself a spreadsheet. Keep track of how many times you work the keywords into your web content writing, and use the right tools to track where you rank for the keywords you target. Don’t know where to get started? Check out our comprehensive guide to keyword research for SEO.
2. Put the keywords to work. It’s not enough to just use the keywords in 2-3% of the copy. You need to put the primary keyword in the title of the blog/article, as well as in the first and last sentence. By doing this, the keywords stand out to the search engine crawlers, as well as the eyes of the readers. Remember, the people using search engines are searching for that particular phrase because they want to know more about it/buy it, so it makes sense to give them what they’re looking for. You’ll get more clicks if you do — it’s one of the tricks of the trade for professional SEO article writers.
3. Write about something people care about. Nobody knows your business like you do — so what kind of expert advice or tips do you have that you can share? If not, you can at least discuss news relating to your business. When in doubt, look at your list of SEO keywords and see what kind of list, link bait or in-depth posts you can work those keywords into. Don’t be afraid to interview some experts, either (if you quote them and feature their expertise in your post, they’ll be likely to share your content via their social channels — this way, you can leverage larger networks to increase the size of your own).
4. Make it long enough to count. Sure, 100 words of fresh content is better than no new content at all. Still, search engines tend to give preference to longer blogs and articles. Try to shoot for at least 300 words, but if you can get to 500 or more, go for it. There has been a lot of research that shows that search engines tend to favor “in-depth” content of at least 2,000 words — we’ve seen this work for ourselves and our clients, and many of TCF’s most popular blog posts are at least 1,500 words.
5. Optimize the optimization of your web content writing. If you use WordPress as your blogging platform, there are lots of free online PR tools (in the form of plugins) you can take advantage of. At The Content Factory, we use Yoast and Shareaholic, along with several others. Free and easy web PR is as simple as hitting the “install now” link.
6. Edit your work. The only difference between professional SEO article writers and regular people is an eye for self editing. Programs like OpenOffice, Google Docs and Microsoft Word make it easy — the red and green squiggleys give most of it away. Having an eye for aesthetically pleasing formatting is also important. Stay away from super long paragraphs and sentences that go on for miles.
7. Become your own online PR agency. Once you’ve written and posted the fresh content, the work is only half complete. The final step of all web content writing is acting as your own online PR agency — link to your content all over the place. Comment on blogs and link back to your site. Submit your content to Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon. Social media management and web content writing go hand-in-hand, and as soon as you hit the “Publish” button on your fresh article or blog, you should tweet your heart out. Want more tips?

Source: www dot contentfac dot com/