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Why your organization needs to upgrade to Umbraco 13 today

Sara Nabil — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 13:00:55 +0000

Elevate your organization’s digital presence with a seamless upgrade to Umbraco 13. Unleash enhanced capabilities, optimize performance, and stay ahead in the online landscape. Explore the benefits of embracing the future now.

As we approach the end of 2023, Umbraco 8 will reach its end-of-life (EOL) by the end of Q3 2024, marking a significant milestone in the Umbraco timeline. This transition is not merely a technical update but a strategic decision critical for your digital presence. With Umbraco 8 entering its sunset phase, it is crucial to start considering the upgrade to the latest version, Umbraco 13, which was released on December 14, 2023. This blog series will explore the benefits of upgrading to Umbraco 13 and it importance to Umbraco users.

Running an unsupported version of Umbraco, such as Umbraco 8 after its end-of-life in Q3 2024, poses significant security risks due to the lack of security patches and updates. Recent security advisories have identified medium-severity issues in Umbraco CMS, emphasizing the importance of staying up-to-date with the latest supported versions. As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, websites built on older CMS versions can become vulnerable to hacking attempts, malware, and data breaches. Upgrading to Umbraco 13 provides access to hardened security enhancements, including stronger protections against various threats, support for the latest encryption standards, and the ability to apply security patches and updates quickly. By not upgrading, the website’s codebase, back-end, and customer data may be exposed to potential security vulnerabilities, making the transition to Umbraco 13 essential for maintaining a secure digital presence

Another significant issue would be compatibility for Umbraco 8 users who do not upgrade to Umbraco 13. Running an unsupported version of Umbraco can affect third-party integrations and future software compatibility. As new technologies emerge, older versions of Umbraco may not be compatible with them, leading to potential issues with third-party integrations and future software compatibility. Upgrading to Umbraco 13 ensures compatibility with .NET 8 and C# 12, providing a secure and forward-compatible platform for your projects until Q4 2026. By upgrading to the latest version, you can take advantage of the latest advancements in web development technology and ensure that your website remains compatible with future software updates and integrations.

As Umbraco 8 approaches its end-of-life, the community and official support for this version will be diminishing. Umbraco HQ will only support Umbraco 8 until its end-of-life date in February 2025, after which no further updates or patches will be provided This lack of support can lead to compatibility issues with third-party integrations and future software updates, making it essential to upgrade to Umbraco 13. By upgrading, you can take advantage of the latest features and improvements, including enhanced security, improved performance, and long-term support. Additionally, Umbraco 13 provides compatibility with .NET 8 and C# 12, ensuring that your website remains compatible with future software updates and integrations. Upgrading to Umbraco 13 is crucial for maintaining a secure and reliable digital presence and avoiding potential compatibility issues.

Moving to Umbraco 13 offers a range of benefits, including enhanced security, which is crucial for protecting your website from potential cyber threats. Umbraco 13 comes equipped with upgraded security features and fixes for vulnerabilities present in older versions

.Some of the security enhancements in Umbraco 13 include:

Stronger protections against SQL injection, XSS, and other code-based threats
Support for the latest encryption standards like Arab Emirates
Ability to require complex passwords
Quick security patches and updates

By upgrading to Umbraco 13, you ensure that your website remains secure and compliant with the latest security standards, providing a robust and reliable platform for your digital presence

Umbraco 13 can also lead to potential performance gains and optimizations compared to Umbraco 8. Umbraco 13 benefits from improvements in the Microsoft .NET 8 garbage collector, allowing for more flexible scaling and improved performance on larger sites. Additionally, Umbraco 13 introduces a range of new features, including webhooks, blocks in the Rich Text Editor, and enhanced media delivery API, which can improve efficiency and speed up site development. By upgrading to Umbraco 13, you can take advantage of these performance improvements and optimizations, providing a faster and more reliable platform for your digital presence.

Lastly, being the latest LTS version, offers extended support and ongoing development, ensuring the stability and security of your digital platform. As an LTS release, Umbraco 13 guarantees 24 months of bug fixes, regression, and security updates, followed by an additional 12 months of security fixes, providing a total of 36 months of support without any breaking changes. This extended support period offers peace of mind, allowing businesses to maintain a secure and reliable digital presence without the need for immediate major upgrades or migrations. By aligning with Microsoft’s latest LTS, Umbraco 13 ensures compatibility and ongoing support, making it a strategic choice for long-term digital projects

In conclusion, upgrading to Umbraco 13 before the end-of-life of Umbraco 8 cannot be overstated. With Umbraco 8 reaching its end-of-life, the time to transition to the latest release is now. Upgrading to Umbraco 13 offers a multitude of advantages, including improved performance and speed, enhanced security features, and long-term support. By making the transition, businesses can ensure that their digital presence remains robust, secure, and aligned with the latest technological advancements. The benefits of Umbraco 13, such as extended support without breaking changes, coupled with the efficiency and reliability of Umbraco Cloud, make the upgrade a strategic and essential decision for businesses and developers alike.

UPGRADE TO UMBRACO 13 WITH A TEAM OF EXPERTS

Contact egforit Software Services, an Umbraco partner based in Cairo, today and let our team of developers guide you through the migration process, ensuring a successful upgrade to the latest version

The post Why your organization needs to upgrade to Umbraco 13 today appeared first on egforit Software.

Next-Gen Content Management: Dive into Umbraco 13’s Cutting-Edge Features

Sara Nabil — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 16:08:51 +0000

Umbraco 13 is the latest version of Umbraco, a popular content management system (CMS) that powers over 1.5 million websites worldwide. Umbraco 13 is not just another minor update, but a major leap forward in the realm of CMS development and digital experiences. In this blog, we will explore some of the new features and capabilities of Umbraco 13 and how they can help you create amazing websites that are fast, flexible, and scalable.

Umbraco has been around since 2009 and has evolved over the years to become one of the most powerful and user-friendly CMS platforms on the market. Umbraco allows you to create any type of website, from simple blogs to complex e-commerce sites, using a drag-and-drop interface or code editor. Umbraco also supports headless development, which means you can deliver your content to any device or platform using APIs and webhooks.

In this blog post, we will dive deeper into these features and more. We will show you how to use Umbraco 13 to create stunning websites that are responsive, accessible, and SEO-friendly. We will also share some tips and best practices for optimizing your website performance and user experience with Umbraco 13. Whether you are a beginner or an expert in web development, this blog post will be useful and informative.

One of the most significant features of Umbraco 13 is the integration with .NET 8 and C# 12, the latest Microsoft technologies. These technologies bring many benefits to Umbraco users, such as improved performance, security, compatibility, and functionality. For example, .NET 8 introduces improvements on the garbage collector to adjust the memory limit on the fly, which allows for better and more flexible scaling. C# 12 introduces new features such as primary constructors, using declarations, field interpolation in string literals, and lambda improvements

Another feature that enhances your flexibility and user experience is the minimal hosting model. This model simplifies the initiation of an application by merging the previous program.cs and startup.cs into one single program.cs file. This makes it easier to set up your Umbraco project and deploy it to any hosting provider. The minimal hosting model also enables you to use all the Microsoft tutorials and examples for Umbraco developmen.

If you want to deliver your content to any device or platform using APIs and webhooks, then you will love the new webhooks feature in Umbraco 13. Webhooks allow you to inform third-party systems about events like publishing and unpublishing in the Umbraco CMS. You can easily configure webhooks by typing in the URL you want to call (including potential custom headers) and choosing one or more events on which you want the URL to be called.

One more feature that improves your content management capabilities is nested field limiting and nested field expansion. This feature allows you to limit or expand nested fields within a content item. For example, if you have a product page with multiple categories, you can limit each category field to show only one category at a time or expand each category field to show all its subcategories at once.

Umbraco 13 also offers many features and capabilities that enable web developers and designers to create websites that are fast, flexible, and scalable. For example, Umbraco 13 supports headless development, which means you can deliver your content to any device or platform using APIs and webhooks. This allows you to create websites that are responsive, accessible, and SEO-friendly.

Umbraco 13 has also introduced dynamic root blocks in the rich text editor, which enable you to use structured data from external sources within your content. This allows you to create websites that are rich in information and functionality.

One of the benefits of using Umbraco 13 for web development and design is that it simplifies the creation of website briefs. A website brief is a document that outlines the goals, requirements, and specifications of a website project. A website brief helps web developers and designers to understand the needs and expectations of their clients, as well as to plan and execute their work efficiently and effectively.

With Umbraco 13’s features such as headless development, dynamic root blocks in rich text editor blocks with structured data , minimal hosting model ,and webhooks ,you can create proposals that showcase your skills , expertise ,and creativity .You can also use these features as part of your presentation , demonstration ,and feedback stages .By using these features ,you can create proposals that are engaging , informative ,and persuasive .The Umbraco community is one of the most vibrant and supportive communities in the open source world. With over 1.5 million websites powered by Umbraco, the community is a diverse and talented group of developers, designers, marketers, and enthusiasts who share a common passion for creating amazing digital experiences. The community offers various resources and opportunities for users to learn, connect, collaborate, and contribute to the development of Umbraco. Some examples are:

– The official Umbraco website, which provides documentation, tutorials, news, podcasts, videos, blogs, and more about Umbraco.

– The our.umbraco.com website[, which is the central hub for the friendly Umbraco community. Users can search for documentation, get help and guidance from seasoned experts, download and collaborate on plugins and extensions.

– The umbraco.com/explore-umbraco-benefits website, which showcases the benefits of using Umbraco as an open source CMS platform. Users can also find out how to join or support the community through various channels such as forums, social media, events, etc.

– The Codegarden website, which is everything from a developer conference to a taco party to one big giant Umbracian meetup. Users can attend or host events near them or online to meet other members of the community face-to-face or virtually.

– The MVP program, which recognizes members from the rich and talented community who contribute back to Umbraco through their skills , expertise ,and creativity .Users can nominate themselves or others for becoming an MVP or attend MVP sessions at Codegarden events.

– The uProfile website, which features stories about individual Umbraco journey and what the community means to them. Users can read or write their own uProfile posts to share their experiences and insights with other members of the community.

The proactiveness , talent ,and helpfulness of the Umbraco community are evident in how they contribute to the platform’s success. The community constantly innovates , improves ,and expands on Umbraco by creating new features , fixing bugs ,enhancing performance ,and adding functionality.

In conclusion ,the Umbraco community is an integral part of making Open Source better for everyone .It offers various resources and opportunities for users to learn , connect , collaborate ,and contribute .It also showcases its proactiveness , talent ,and helpfulness by constantly innovating , improving ,and expanding on Open Source technologies such as .NET Core MVC Angular Vue React Node.js Express MongoDB Firebase GraphQL RESTful APIs etc.It also helps other users by providing support , guidance ,feedback,and resources.

With these advancements, Umbraco 13 is poised to shape the future of content management and digital experiences, offering a seamless and efficient content management experience. The release is coupled with the efficiency and reliability of Umbraco Cloud, making the CMS experience smoother and more powerful than ever. Overall, Umbraco 13 is expected to have a significant impact on content management and digital experiences, providing a robust and future-proof platform for organizations.

Interested to see how Umbraco fits your organization?

Check out how our experts can guide you through the right management and implementation. Read our case study here: /project/banking-cms-development-solutions/

The post Next-Gen Content Management: Dive into Umbraco 13’s Cutting-Edge Features appeared first on egforit Software.

Future-Proof Your Web Presence: The Urgency of Migrating to Umbraco 13 Today

Sara Nabil — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 14:30:34 +0000

.Some of the security enhancements in Umbraco 13 include:

Stronger protections against SQL injection, XSS, and other code-based threats
Support for the latest encryption standards like Arab Emirates
Ability to require complex passwords
Quick security patches and updates

By upgrading to Umbraco 13, you ensure that your website remains secure and compliant with the latest security standards, providing a robust and reliable platform for your digital presence

UPGRADE TO UMBRACO 13 WITH A TEAM OF EXPERTS

Contact egforit Software Services, an Umbraco partner based in Cairo, today and let our team of developers guide you through the migration process, ensuring a successful upgrade to the latest version

The post Future-Proof Your Web Presence: The Urgency of Migrating to Umbraco 13 Today appeared first on egforit Software.

CMS selection mistakes and how to avoid them

egforit Software — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 12:31:21 +0000

Websites continue to be a key tool for business owners to connect and sell to consumers. Websites are one such digital tool to engage with a customer base as well as tap into new markets. For companies that sell products, its another way to document, control and process purchase orders and manage inventory. We’ve considered the most common CMS selection mistakes that business owners make and why it matters.

Web CMS is not just a web development tool

Web CMS solutions include applied functionality tools to increase exposure for their business into new markets. This is particularly true when considering SEM and PPC marketing. Owners can integrate a CMS with other business systems to achieve more and unlock potential. This may require help from an IT solutions provider such as egforit depending on the complexity of the requirement.

One simple example would be to correlate site performance with associated costs to achieve better informed business decisions.

Wanting too much too soon

Web CMS are designed to be flexible for whatever use case the user needs. Features, add-ons and plugins extend functionality and are designed to easily resolve challenges for those looking for easy solutions.

However, owners can be quickly overwhelmed by the number of options available. Complex solutions are not always the best choice and it’s easy for site owners to bite off more than they can chew.

Selecting the wrong CMS for your goals

Many business owners choose a CMS based on the list of features offered and tasks it can do. However, this can be a trap as owners won’t need the extra features and functionalities available to them.

By aligning the website with the key business goals, owners should select the right CMS with the necessary functionalities for their needs. It also helps to have a website strategy that ensures functionality scales as the business grows.

Not using CMS properly

Those looking for a new CMS focus too much on “what” a web CMS can do rather than “how” it can help develop their website goals. By being familiar with the CMS, decision-makers will know exactly the limits of what their new website can and can’t do. Identifying, diagnosing and resolving website-related issues will ensure owners understand how to improve their systems and ensure effective digital growth.

CMS selection is critical for business owners looking to start or even migrate a website. The right CMS will grant owners the ability to make better-informed decisions and ensure no challenge is too big to face. Naturally, the process of comparing and deciding upon a CMS is arduous but is essential for businesses that want to meet their short and long-term business goals.

Check out our blog post on Choosing the right CMS for the next steps.

Grow your digital presence and get scalable CMS functionality

Get in touch with us as the digital CMS experts and we can guide you to the best CMS solution for your requirements.

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Choosing the right CMS for your business website

egforit Software — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 16:57:19 +0000

Content marketing has consistently proven itself more cost-effective than traditional advertising. And to make content marketing work online, you’ll need a suitable content management system (CMS). However, investing in the wrong CMS can be costly, damaging, and hard to reverse. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to choosing the right CMS for your business.

Open-source CMS vs proprietary CMS

The first decision you’ll come across is whether to use an open-source CMS or a proprietary CMS. In our experience, open-source is almost always better.

Using a proprietary CMS is like renting the software from a third party. If that third party goes out of business, you no longer have access to the CMS. While it’s unlikely that a company like Adobe will go under soon, it isn’t a risk worth taking.

Besides this flaw with proprietary CMS, using an open-source CMS has a host of benefits as well.

• Limitless CMS flexibility

Open-source means the CMS source code is open to the public. So with the right CMS development expertise, you can modify that code however you want. You aren’t limited by what another company has done before. Your CMS can be truly unique.

And because open-source code is so available, you’ll be able to find many highly qualified CMS developers to help.

• Better value for money

“Open-source” doesn’t necessarily mean “free”. You’ll still have to spend time and money on setting the CMS up properly for SEO, security, and UX.

However, this investment is typically less than the monthly fees you’d pay for a proprietary CMS. And open-source gives you more flexibility for your money.

• Faster updates and fixes

Literally millions of people use, develop, and support open-source CMS. In contrast, the proprietary CMS user base is comparatively small.

For this reason, open-source CMS users tend to report any bugs in the code more quickly. And that accelerates the fixes as well.

• More eyes on security

You might think that open-source software is more vulnerable, because hackers can study the code. On the other hand, being open-source means that thousands of developers worldwide are constantly testing the code for vulnerabilities. Famous names like The New Yorker, Sony Music, and Beyonce all use the open-source WordPress CMS, for example.

CMS customisation case study

Helping a fintech company adopt Umbraco

A financial services company engaged egforit Software to rebuild its website with Umbraco. The result was a marketing team empowered to make changes without costly developer support.

See the case study

How to choose the best open-source CMS

We’ve covered the benefits of choosing an open-source CMS rather than proprietary. But there are still dozens of open-source CMS to choose from. There is no universal answer to the question “What is the best open-source CMS?” It all depends on your business, your marketing goals, and your workforce.

Overall, the points you should consider when choosing a CMS are:

How will this platform effect your business?
What is the full cost of owning this CMS?
What ongoing requirements will there be?
How well does the CMS fit into your existing technologies?
Is the CMS easy to use for your teams?
Does the software have adequate security built in?
Will it be easy for non-technical staff to customise?
Does the platform help marketers with SEO?
Are there reliable support options for the CMS?

Comparing the top open-source CMS

Among the open-source CMS crowd, there are two stand-out leaders: WordPress and Umbraco.

WordPress is the most widely-used CMS today, powering 39.5 percent of all websites.

Umbraco has a much smaller market share, less than 0.1 percent of all CMS.

However, the number of users isn’t necessarily the most important factor for your business. Let’s dive into some more comparisons that will help you in choosing the right CMS.

1. Umbraco

• Technology

Microsoft’s ASP.NET framework is the tech behind Umbraco. For companies with in-house Microsoft development expertise, this familiarity will be to your advantage.

• Usability

With Umbraco, you start with a blank-slate CMS and develop the functionality you need. In that sense, Umbraco doesn’t immediately give non-technical staff as much as WordPress does. Umbraco is more suited to a company that needs high customisation and has a reasonable development budget.

• Customisation

While there are Umbraco plugins, you’ll need a developer to code them into your site. This means more time and effort, but also the ability to alter plugins however you want. To do that, you’ll need a team with bespoke software development skills.

• Security

Microsoft invests heavily in protecting its solutions and languages, including ASP.NET. You can rely on Microsoft’s frequent penetration tests to spot and fix any issues with the code underlying Umbraco.

2. WordPress

• Technology

WordPress CMS is built with PHP, a language that powers 79 percent of all websites. Due to the language’s popularity, you will have a wide choice of software development experts to help if required.

• Usability

A major reason for WordPress’s popularity is its ease of use. Because it started off as a blog platform, WordPress guides users through the publishing process. An ever-growing ecosystem of plugins and templates adds styling and functionality at the touch of a button.

• Customisation

WordPress famously has a large ecosystem of plugins. These cover essentials like contact forms, site analytics, SEO, caching, chatbots, and much more. However, these premade plugins don’t offer the same flexibility as you’ll find in Umbraco’s coded plugins.

• Security

The downside of the WordPress plugin ecosystem is the possibility of poor design and security flaws. It’s best to use only plugins from trusted providers and get help from a WordPress expert when installing them.

Summary: choosing the right CMS

We can sum up this comparison as follows:

while WordPress is more user-friendly, you have to rely on third-party plugins for customisation
while Umbraco is designed for customisation, you’ll need to invest in development time

For these reasons, WordPress is often more suited to SMEs that want to get a website up quickly. Umbraco, on the other hand, may suit large enterprises with a need for high security and customisation.

Need help choosing the right CMS and customising it to your business? The good news is that we have a software development team that specialises in PHP and ASP.NET. So whichever of the leading CMS you choose, you can rely on our experts to achieve the results you need.

Get your CMS done right

Our developers have helped everyone from banking giants to small businesses get the most out of their CMS. To find out how we can help you, see our digital portals solutions or send us a message below.

Message our team

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5 headless CMS advantages for business websites today

egforit Software — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 16:56:37 +0000

If you follow web technologies, you’ve probably heard of headless content management systems (CMS). The basic difference is that headless CMS have no built-in visual layer. But is this just a novelty, or is there a business benefit? In this article we’ll look at the headless CMS advantages for specific business goals.

CMS development case study

Building a custom CMS for fintech

We helped this fintech client drive its online rebrand with a powerful Umbraco CMS. The company’s marketing team gained more control and cut development costs as a result.

See the case study

Traditional CMS vs Headless CMS image provided by ContentStack.

The top five headless CMS advantages

While headless CMS are useful, are they the right choice for your business? It depends. Based on our 30 years of CMS development expertise, we can break down the differences as follows:

Feature	Traditional CMS	Headless CMS
Development model	Waterfall	Agile
Content model	Page-by-page	Reusable
Supported devices	Limited	Limitless
Reach	One-to-one	One-to-many
Back end	Monolithic	Microservice
Updates	Scheduled	Continuous
Investment	Up-front cost	Quick iterations
Technical debt	Inherent	Managed

For more detail, see our breakdown of the top five headless CMS benefits below.

1. Adapt content to any medium

The purpose of a traditional CMS is to produce website pages. There’s no simple way to display content from that database on mobile sites, apps, and conversational interfaces, for example.

This is one of the strongest headless CMS use cases — when you want the same content to reach multiple devices.

Why? Because a headless CMS has no inherent bias for any device. You can build any number of front ends and draw in the same CMS data through the APIs.

This also means that a headless CMS is future-proof. Maybe in five years we’ll all be interacting with holograms. But that won’t be a problem for your headless CMS — your hologram can still access the API.

2. Use any front-end technology

As noted above, you access headless CMS data through APIs. Because this technology is basically universal, it doesn’t matter which front-end technology you use.

This is ideal for building with front-end frameworks like VueJs, React, and Angular.

It also works with static site generators like Jekyll and Middleman.

Another use case is native mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

So if you want this kind of versatility, that is one of the key headless CMS advantages.

3. Stop repeating yourself

“Don’t repeat yourself” (DRY) is one of the first things you learn in software development. Did we mention that “don’t repeat yourself” (DRY) is one of the first things you learn in software development? Yes, we did.

But due to the number of digital platforms today, businesses often have to duplicate their CMS many times over. Copying content from a website to an app to a digital display isn’t a valuable use of time.

By working from a central headless CMS, you eliminate that problem. Make changes in the CMS and that change happens instantly across all connected devices.

4. Promote agile development

Having multiple “heads” on your CMS allows teams to work in parallel. You can do away with the waterfall development model and start working agile.

This greater speed and flexibility gives your business the edge when it comes to releasing new software.

5. Personalise and localise

Gathering user data, analysing it, and personalising accordingly is complex at any time. Now imagine you have to do that across multiple CMS: one for your website, one for your app, one for your display devices. It quickly becomes impractical.

But in the world of ecommerce, personalisation has a huge impact on sales. What to do?

By keeping all your content on a central database — the headless CMS — you can make personalisation that much easier.

Which headless content management system?

Some CMS are born headless, some achieve headlessness, and some have headlessness thrust upon them.

In the “born headless” camp we have options such as Umbraco Heartcore. This is based on an Umbraco back-end that’s been around for 15 years. There are obvious advantages to using a CMS that over 500,000 websites already use worldwide.

In the “thrust upon them” camp we have WordPress. The world’s most popular CMS was born with a built-in front end. User demand for a WordPress REST API led to the development of headless access. It’s now possible to have a WordPress back end with an entirely different front end, such as React.

Of course there are many, many more headless CMS to choose from. If you need in-depth advice on which to choose, please speak to one of our CMS development team.

Ready to go headless?

If you’re ready to go headless, our award-winning developers are eager to help. Start the conversation and we’ll get in touch.

Message our team

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PHP Development Website Launched

support — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 13:41:46 +0000

In a drive to bring this popular language to even more Egypt , middle east businesses, egforit Software has launched a new PHP development site.

With around 80 percent of all websites built on this programming language, PHP is a highly valuable tool for our clients.

egforit Software formed its PHP team over 10 years ago. Since then, clients of all sizes and sectors – from SMEs to large enterprises and public-sector organisations – have benefitted from our bespoke development.

Our new PHP development website site throws a spotlight on this crucial area of web development, along with its many benefits and applications.

Why PHP Development?

PHP web development is behind some of the biggest sites around, including Wikipedia, Flickr, and Tumblr. Facebook started out on standard PHP before moving to a separate PHP framework for its own platform and app development needs.

Mature frameworks maintained by an active community are one of the reasons for PHP’s success. These frameworks can be used to create industry-specific and general-purpose applications.

Another widespread use of PHP is in Content Management Systems (CMS). WordPress, the world’s most popular CMS, is built using PHP tools.

The egforit Software PHP Team

As well as PHP frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony, and Zend, our team also performs CMS integration with TYPO3, WordPress, and Drupal.

Through code-level customisation of existing tools, we ensure that our bespoke CMS projects align content and presentation to your particular specifications.

For cloud-based implementations, our team builds and configures the virtual servers, software, and services required to create a balanced and scalable architecture for Amazon Web Services (AWS), IBM SoftLayer, and Microsoft Azure.

PHP Mobile Services

PHP remains one of the most powerful languages for mobile app development. This is partly thanks to its ability to embed directly into HTML, integrate with AJAX and Callback, and interface easily with Apache and MySQL.

Our PHP mobile development team designs every project with state-of-the-art user interfaces, scalable systems, and capability for user impressions on the app base.

PHP Software Development

Our bespoke CMS designs include the most popular platforms, such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

Industries from e-commerce to financial services and non-profits have benefited from our custom CMS services. By focusing on speed and intensive data exchange capabilities, we offer real-time solutions for your content.

Keen to see how our services can benefit your business? Feel free to visit our dedicated PHP development website.

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Automation Sensation: Streamlining Customer Service & Management

support — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 13:30:49 +0000

Part 3 of egforit’s Business Process Automation article series looks at how to streamline customer service & management.

Seamless Customer Service is Critical

Part 2 of Automation Sensation focused on “Improving Internal Communication & Processes”, highlighting a few key areas of your internal business that can be revolutionised through automation.

The case for streamlined and organised internal processes is an obvious one; better organisation leads to improved efficiency and productivity, and generally makes the day-to-day of internal business much easier.

So what about customer-related processes? Automation of your customer management and services means more than just simple processes for users: It’s a reflection on your brand and can have a huge impact on customer retention.

What areas of customer-facing or customer-oriented processes can be enhanced through automation? What are the potential risks of not keeping these processes up-to-speed?

Hands-Free 24/7 Online Services

Let’s look first at customer-facing processes including web services/applications, mobile applications, e-commerce and user accounts. Are you delivering these services seamlessly and on-demand, or are your unautomated processes costing you business?

Without Automation

We’re all familiar with it: the dreaded phonecall waiting list. Customers phone calls, email or web forms all wait in line for a human being to deal with them. Services are only available during working hours as a business employee is required to deal with them and websites are not mobile-responsive, making them slow to load and difficult to navigate. Data has to be manually transferred between applications, or entered by hand into spreadsheets. E-Commerce orders are not acknowledged or processed until an employee attends to them, one order at a time.

Slow response times mean unhappy customers at best, and at worse the loss of customers to more efficient competitors.

With Automation

Now imagine your customers using services either via the phone or online without having to wait for a manual response. Customers can change account details, access account information, or raise queries for information and receive a prompt, intuitive answer. Client information is stored in efficient, automatically-updated databases, and client-facing applications communicate and share data to allow for faster or self-service capabilities. E-commerce orders are acknowledged and fulfilled automatically – in some cases by drone-operated distribution centres. Most importantly, customer-facing services and applications run 24/7, are responsive and streamlined for mobile use and don’t need for a staffed team to deal with processes.

According to Gartner, by 2020 customers will manage 85% of their relationship with enterprises without interacting with a human. Interactive voice response (IVR) or visual IVR streamline the customer’s interaction process, empowering customers to resolve queries unassisted in a more efficient fashion.

“By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human” – Gartner

Customers today expect mobility, flexibility and convenience. It’s never been easier to meet those demands with dedicated mobile applications for your services. APIs and algorithms can be written into your sites and apps to automatically communicate data and even to send commands to automated hardware.

Streamlined Customer Management

Now we’ll look at management of your company relationships, customer interactions and contact with potential customers for sales and more. Does your business benefit from the results your sales team achieve, or is inefficiency and poor communication dragging productivity down?

Without Automation

Picture the scene – your sales team is out on the road, talking to customers, meeting prospects and gathering valuable data. All of it is stored in handwritten notes, laptops, mobile devices or even in your salespeople’s heads. Meanwhile customers contact you across various platforms – phone, email or social media – asking questions, raising complaints or following up orders.

Information gets lost or forgotten, communication is not followed up promptly and prioritising your customers is entirely guesswork. Making sense of this data is a difficult task. Extracting data for reports is confusing and takes up valuable selling time, while management struggles to monitor or support the team.

With Automation

Imagine a clear and detailed overview of your customers all in one place. Imagine an easy-to-use, customisable dashboard where you can find details of a customer’s history with your company, status on orders or any customer service issues, and more. The details your sales teams work so hard to gather are stored and accessed easily. You have insights into the sales process and can see info about prospective customers – ensuring simplicity and accuracy of forecasting as well as clear visibility of the path from enquiries to sales. Customer issues and enquiries can be logged and managed across multiple channels, from social media to email or telephone, making progress easy to track.

What you’re imagining is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool – a single application designed to hold all that information, often in the cloud for easier accessibility on the go. Salesforce is a great example of one such tool and has become a leading solution for CRM requirements.

Marketing & Lead Generation

Next let’s look at the promotion of products or services, advertising and generating new leads for sales/clientele. Are you leveraging the tools available to maximise results and productivity or are slow manual processes preventing you from putting your best foot forward?

Without Automation

When content is created you begin the hugely time consuming process of sharing it on social media, manually signing in and posting across potential multiple channels, feeds and accounts. Updating your content online requires a good knowledge of html and CSS coding and can be a slow and painstaking task. The data for your company mailing lists is stored in manually compiled spreadsheets that must be added by hand to email contact groups for your e-marketing campaigns.

With Automation

Now imagine writing your content and uploading it in a clean and easy-to-use interface that handles all the complex coding for you. Imagine posting it and sending it out across all your social media channels with a single click. Imagine site visitors signing up to newsletters and being automatically added to mailing lists, with introductory content automatically sent to them at scheduled intervals.

Content management systems (CMS) provide the easy upload, creation and management of your digital content exactly as described above. WordPress is a leading example of a CMS for website content, facilitating easy management and site structuring with minimal coding knowledge. There are also platforms that generate and manage email campaigns. Data entered into online sign-up or gated content forms can be automatically directed to your CRM via commands such as APIs, customisable in whatever code is required for your platform.

Invoicing & Finance

The management and processing of client/ partner payments and invoices is an area of business where efficiency and reliability is critical. Many businesses are hindered by late payments or inaccurate financial information – is yours one of them?

Without Automation

It’s still a surprisingly common scenario: Paper invoices that are passed around various internal departments for required signatures – often taking days to do the rounds with the ever-present risk of getting lost.

Information about customer finances are stored in paper documents or on local computers, where information is hard to reach. How much has a client paid? What invoices have been sent and what’s their status? The information you do have is stored in yet more dreaded spreadsheets, and for customers with payment accounts you have the added minefield of data protection and security requirements.

With Automation

The alternative: Invoices scanned or generated digitally, where they can be stored in an intranet and assigned to necessary team members with clear priorities, due dates and reminders. Invoices are processed more efficiently with fewer missed payments or incorrect details, and a clear digital trail of approval enforcing accountability throughout your team. Payments are handled through third party providers, with simple programming to tie it to your applications or platforms.

Invoice management applications can be developed to integrate with your company intranet or CRM. Alternatively there are existing tools that you can leverage for the same thing such as the invoicing applications available for Salesforce. For business accepting customer payments, (e.g. e-commerce sites) you can handle these through platforms such as Paypal. APIs can be custom-written to communicate between Paypal and your applications, meaning you don’t have to store any sensitive data and payments are swift and secure.

Keeping a Competitive Edge

Business process automation is about more than just making processes easier; it’s about staying ahead, or at the very least meeting the same standards as your competition.

Knowing how to implement these automations could be critical to the success of your business and your brand. All you need to get started is the right expertise.

egforit has all the experience and knowledge across all industries and technologies to deliver the customer services and management solutions needed to keep your business ahead.

Don’t get left behind – get egforit.

In the Next Article:

In the next article we’ll be looking at areas of Customer Service & Management that can be automated to enhance your business.

Want to read the whole series?

Part 1: What is Business Process Automation?

Part 2: Improving Internal communication & processes

Part 3: Streamlining Customer Service & Management

Part 4: Enhancing Admin & HR Processes

Part 5: Developing Insights & Business Intelligence

For 25 years egforit Software has delivered quality business software & data solutions from within the Egypt , middle east. If you would like to talk to us about a business intelligence solution, software solution or any IT project you need to deliver successfully, please contact us.

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