The African Brand Leadership Merit Awards is an initiative of the African Brand Congress (ABC). The Congress is designed to educate, engage and inspire Brand managers and professionals in the pursuit of best practice in brand building and value creation.

The Award is aimed at celebrating Leadership, innovations and creativity in Africa. It showcases brilliant minds and institutions that are delivering positive change and shaping Africa’s future.

Prunedge received this award because of its Value Creation and Brand Building Efforts and Growth in 2022. Prunedge is well-known for innovating and developing affordable technological solutions that solve everyday human problems by improving the efficiency of systems and processes in the social, commercial, and public sectors.

Joel Ogunsola, the CEO of Prunedge reacting to this development said, “This award recognizes our entire team for their efforts in building Prunedge and establishing it as an industry leader in a highly competitive market. One of our culture phrases is innovation, this award confirms the brand’s commitment and unrelenting drive to deliver solutions that improve the efficiency of day-to-day processes. For us, excellence is a watchword that characterises every aspect of our business, and this is what we are projecting to the world.”

The award was received by Daniel Ale, the company’s Chief Technology Officer. While receiving the award he said, “We are glad to be recognized and will continue to strive to push the boundaries of secure and improved business environments, encouraging work that continues to result in real-world changes.”

At Prunedge, we believe that our clients are the most important part of our business. As a result, we strive to satisfy them by constantly innovating simple and smart solutions to real-life problems.

It will be recalled that earlier in the year, Prunedge also claimed the Software Company of the Year and the award for ICT Services Implementation & Support at the Beacon of ICT awards. These awards attest to Prunedge’s immense contributions and dedication to the development of the ICT sector, utilizing technology to make a difference in the world.

See Here: Prunedge wins BIG at the BoICT 2022 Awards Night

Application Programming Interfaces (API) is a software intermediary that acts as a communication link between computer systems, allowing them to access, interact and extract a company’s data function.   

An API functions as a messenger for processing requests and helps your business function seamlessly. APIs allow you to connect information, devices, and software. It can also be referred to as an online programming interface for your organisation, because it allows your business applications communicate with all backend systems easily.     

How can APIs help your business?   

The customers are at the center of every business and to retain them you have to provide them with the best possible experiences. APIs allow you create solutions that provide better experiences without significant increase in the cost. They also help businesses streamline their operations.  Other benefits include;

Automation and integration   

Many businesses need integration of their applications with no need for human intervention. This linking of applications can only be achieved with APIs that support automation. You can automate and integrate your manual tasks to come up with smooth and seamless transitions between the linked applications. Integrated and automated implementations can help your company save money, time, and effort. 

For instance, some software can be used inside another or connected with other tools to streamline certain processes according to your business needs. By doing that your organisation or business can realise better results and reduce development costs.  

 Also Read: Optimizing Customer Experience and Growing Your Business With UI/UX Designs

Better user experience for customers 

These days, customers want to access services easily because they know that technology can now support social channels and mobile devices. Hence, these services should be accessible on platforms used by most of your customers. 

With APIs, you can comfortably connect with your customers through social platforms in the form of social networking sites, photo-sharing apps, microblogging systems, virtual reality, chatbots, and others.

Marketing Purposes  

As the world evolves, business owners and companies understand that digital marketing is very important in promoting products or services. Traditional forms of marketing work, however, they might not drive desired traffic to businesses and you’re not sure of what works. This is another aspect where API integration helps. You can now advertise your businesses by showing banners and ads on third-party apps to your target audience. 

You will also experience increase in lead generation from several sources, including several media platforms. By integrating APIs into your system, the lead generation process is streamlined. Which will in turn help your business land new customers, brand ambassadors, and potential partners. 

Innovation   

Before now only developers with deep knowledge of data exchange models could use APIs. This was because extremely rigid processes needed to be followed when assembling software components. However, API integration has made things easier.  With API integration, you can be assured of digital transformation, creation and development of new business models. APIs enable software to be supplemented with other products or services to enhance development. 

Here at Prunedge, we know that API integration is being used by businesses to achieve a smooth data transition in less time and with fewer resources. Click on the “get in touch” button for a free 30-minute consultation to learn more about how your business can benefit from API Integration.  

In simple terms, market research is used to figure out what people want, and user research is used to figure out why they want what they want.  For user research, it is specific. It helps to find out how and why people use certain products so that you can focus on ones that more people will enjoy.  

However, with market research, you get information about a market and in turn figure out what people want and how to give it to them.  

The Big Question – User research or Market research ?  

The most important difference between market research and user research has to do with the results. If you only focus on what people want and need, you might miss important information that could have helped you meet a need that wasn’t being met and grow your business. In the same way, if you only watch how people interact with and use your products, you won’t be able to predict market demand or figure out how your competitors measure up.  

Based on this information, we can see that market research and user research will happen at different points in the development of a product or service.   

Market researchers are involved in the early stages of a product’s development. They look for ways to make money and give businesses information about the market’s needs, size, competition, and pricing. They use methods that focus on numbers. They look at large groups of samples to find out the average age of potential users, how much money they make, and other general facts.  

Also Read : Five Ways Market Research Can Improve Your Business

User researchers, on the other hand, work with the product teams to make features for a specific person. Often, qualitative research on users is done. They focus on a small group of people to find out more about them and what they want. With this information, the product team can fashion products and services that are just right for their users. They find out what each person thinks about a product that already exists and how it could be made better.  

When done right, market research and user research are used to reduce business risks and give stakeholders a clear plan for making successful products and services.  

Not to be a party pooper, but if you were looking forward to seeing a winner, there is none. Both types of research should be conducted by all businesses, even B2B businesses. This doesn’t mean you should start engaging in all kinds of research.   

Your goals will help you decide between market research and user research. But if you want to create a new product/service or make an existing one work better, you need to figure out what the market wants and make sure the right product is made for the right people in the right way. So, it’s likely that if you do both types of research, your results will be better. At Prunedge, our research teams have a lot of experience figuring out what questions to ask to get the information that your business needs.    

Read Here : Prunedge wins BIG at the BoICT 2022 Awards Night

Our strategy and research experts at Prunedge will help you use insights from market and user research in the various stages of product development and marketing. We study your customer’s behavior and identify their needs, from figuring out what your target audience needs and why they need them, to developing the product, to pre-sale, point-of-sale, and after-sale. Utilising that data to advise what features to create for your product to solve your customer’s pain points. 

Click on the “get in touch” button for a free 30-minute consultation to find out how we can help provide your business with a comprehensive study that guarantees you the best results. 

Why Market Research?  

Many business owners and entrepreneurs conduct research on the target market to figure out if a new business idea will make money. High-skilled and efficient analysts here at Prunedge do in-depth market research. They collect data, analyse it and turn it into actionable insights using innovative and ground-breaking software and technology like artificial intelligence (AI).    

With market research, you find out about a market’s size, type, and customers in order to make better decisions for your new or existing businesses. Market research methods include customer surveys, testing products, focus groups, and desk research. There are now more data sources than ever that companies can use to learn about the market.  

Any business owner who invests in the services of a professional market researcher is making a good business decision. Here are five ways market research can improve your business; 

1. It speaks to current problems. 

Sometimes, you might have difficulties in your business, such as, lack of brand awareness, new or unknown competitors, and many more. With market research, you are able to figure out what is happening, the cause, and how you can rectify it. 

Here at Prunedge, we create a strategic research approach and plan to learn what will impact successful leads and conversions. 

We create features for your product to solve your customer’s pain points. We also uncover new and actionable insights that will allow us to craft a long-term strategy for your business. 

Also Read: Mobile Security Testing: Why is it Important for Retail and Enterprise Businesses

2. It helps to know your market value 

Market research helps you to see how your target audience uses your services and those of your competitors. It can also help you show how your products can be better than those of your competitors. These details can help you find competitors who are doing better than you and ones you didn’t even know about. Thorough research can help you find the weaknesses in their strategies and campaigns. This will give you insight as to how to better position your business. 

3. It helps with foresight for business growth  

As a result of market research, you can make well-informed decisions about how you want your business to grow. This can include expanding into new marketing channels, changing the prices of your products or services, and adding or taking-away services to better suit your target audience.  

Sometimes, it may seem counter-productive, but reducing and focusing on a smaller set of specialised services may increase brand awareness in the long run. This is because you have more resources to put into a single, well-thought-out strategy. If there is room for growth, you will need the data from market research to figure out when and how to best start your new venture so that it makes the intended impression on your customers. 

4. It helps set achievable goals. 

Setting goals is very important for your business. Effective market research will help you figure out what goals are attainable for long-term growth. Market research will help you foresee when your business can achieve these goals and spot common mistakes that could cause a setback to your organisation. With proper market research, you can plan the best ways to achieve your goals without wasting time or money. 

By conducting good research, business owners can create an open line of communication with their customers. Once you know what your customers want, you’ll be able to tailor your business to meet their needs. 

Read This: E-procurement 101: Why you need an E-procurement tool in 2022

5. It helps you to understand your customers.  

Data analytics can provide transactional information, but it cannot tell you why people buy, why they choose you, or why they like your products. Learning how your target audience uses your product or services gives you insights into why they like your products and services, why they prefer you to your competitors, what made them decide to choose you and more.  

When you really understand your current target audience, you can expand and improve on the qualities that helped them choose you in the first place.   

You can ensure a reduction in the overall risks for your business by conducting market research, which will also make it possible for you to devise the most efficient and cost-effective approach feasible. There are no limits when it comes to doing market research.   

At Prunedge, we help you use the insights obtained from market research, as well as the public relations and marketing initiatives to implement strategies that are more effective and impactful.   

Click on the ‘Get in Touch’ box at the top right and we’ll let you know how you can get proper market research in a free 30-minute consultation. 

What is an E-Procurement system?

The electronic procurement system is a technology that helps improve the purchasing and supply process. It also improves the transparency and efficiency of transactions between agencies and their vendors. It allows people who want to help with public procurement processes to do so through a single online portal. This leads to more transparency, healthy competition, time and cost-saving benefits. In other terms, an eProcurement system is a cloud-based software that makes it easy to find, buy, and manage goods and services online. It has digital and automated tools that businesses can use to support them, set vendor policies, and be more transparent about how the system works. 

The best eProcurement systems can seamlessly combine the tactical and transactional parts of an organization’s procurement process, for the best results. This type of procurement work refers to tasks that are done often and help keep things running smoothly, like writing purchase orders and updating product catalogs.  

Benefits of an E- procurement system include;

1. Streamlined workflow resulting in increased productivity: Businesses save time and money by using a single, automated platform for the main steps of procurement. This means they don’t have to do a lot of administrative and manual work, like filling out paperwork. When teams work together, they save time and can work on more complicated or high-value tasks. In the long run, e-procurement will free up time for the team to work on more important tasks and functions. There are many ways to speed things up, such as by using automated invoice matching. The goods can be ordered and processed in just a few minutes.

2. Cost Effective:  People who use e-procurement save a lot of time and money, because they can choose a lot more suppliers, build trading communities, and more. This makes e-procurement a lot more cost-effective than traditional procurement. Transactions save money because there are fewer people working and all processes are fully automated. This means that they cost less money. Over time, small savings per transaction add up to big money for a business.

3. E-marketing of Products: This is a great marketing tool for both sellers and buyers because there is price transparency (you can easily see how much things cost) and buyers can compare offers from different e-catalog vendors. When it comes to electronic catalogs, some suppliers are trying to make their services more standardized so that buyers can easily compare the offers of different catalogs.

IProkure, our e-procurement system, can cut down on the work your purchasing team has to do while increasing productivity and efficiency.  Furthermore, we do so at a price that you can afford because we are always looking for new ways to solve everyday human problems with technology that is both affordable and easy to use. Picking out the best e- procurement system might seem tedious. However, you have to look out for features that would be advantageous to your organization.

Some of the features that constitute a good procurement system include; 

• Vendor portal: This ensures that the registration process for prospective vendors is simple and easy. Through a systematic and rule-based registration process, they upload essential documents. The vendor dashboard also gives vendors a real-time account of the e-tendering process.  

• E-Catalog: Catalogues are digitized by storing details of all assets disposed of and all procurements made on the cloud. These details are organized and classified in to different categories and are made available for users to access rapidly and effectively.  

• Electronic Document Management and Versioning: Administrative users can approve, reject, and comment on electronic documents submitted on the platform. The vendors can also submit new versions of documents if required.  

• Approval Workflow: There is the creation of custom workflows in line with existing policies for each requisition. Vendors are notified about every approval step helping to save time, money as well as resources during the process.  

• E-Payment Module: Easy acceptance of electronic payment for online transactions. Payments of bidding/tendering fees by vendors and also ensure remuneration of contract cost electronically. Tracking of all procurement transactions is made easy because for every payment made there is a unique transaction ID auto-generated by the system.  

• Contract Performance and Evaluation: People who use the platform can be sure that the contracts they win will be properly evaluated and monitored. There is a way to keep track of the process milestones and delivery time. An alert is sent to the solution administrator on the expected delivery date for goods, projects, and services.

If your company is still doing a lot of its procurement tasks by hand or with old databases and complicated spreadsheets, you should think about getting an e-procurement system.  Spread your wings and see how Iprokure can help.   

Finding the Issues

In this field, I have realized that while testing, it is important to focus on the test at hand, this will ensure that when reporting, you will be reporting facts rather than assumptions. If you are not sure of the output or result of a test case, it is better to mark that test as “Retest”. Assumptions will not help the developers, rather they might affect the testing time which in turn affects the product delivery if that issue does not actually exist.

Another issue that may affect your test reporting is unstable internet. If the internet is unstable, it is better and advisable to pause your test until you have a better network connection. Not only does this affect the testing time, because it might take forever for a page to load but a test case may fail only because the internet is unstable.

Looking at some products that I have been opportune to work on, I have realized that understanding requirements is also critical. Reviewing the requirements not only for the purpose of writing out test cases but also to understand what needs to be done. Ask for clarifications if needed. You may not exhaust all the questions at the beginning stage, but continue asking as the software is being developed or when a modification is required. This will ensure that the test cases are clear and concise — hence it will give you full knowledge of what you are looking for when testing.

Check Out: Why You Should Adopt IoT Into Your Business in 2022 

Now let us take a moment away from the issues that need to be fixed or the ones that require improvements. Let us talk about communicating the results to the necessary stakeholders and team members. Finding out that a software has defects is not enough, fixing those defects is what will make the software quality. In between finding out the issues and fixing them, there’s a gap, and that is communication. If the product managers and developers do not understand the issues, finding out the issues alone cannot fix them.

Giving Feedback

Now that we have found the issues, how do we communicate them to the necessary stakeholders? Whether the communication will be done via report summary, standup meeting, or all-hands, one fact remains, a quality assurance analyst or engineer should be professional, proficient in communication, and be able to stick to only facts. During test reporting, the tester should be objective and diplomatic. The goal of the communication is to enhance product quality and optimize the development process. Aggressions should not be passed or transferred. That a Software is buggy should not affect the tone of communication. You will be communicating with a plethora of people — Product Managers, Developers, members of the projects, Top Management, or Users. The communication should be relevant to all of them.

For effective communication, it is important to determine the level of details that is required depending on whom you are communicating with. Communication can either be inward or outward. The top management may only be interested in the defect trends, how the issues have been resolved over time, the current status of the project, how many percentages passed, and how many failed. This outward communication needs to be brief and straight to the point but when communicating with the development team or product manager, the inward communication should include every detail, severity, number of bugs found, description of the issues, and areas that are constantly regressing, i.e., prone to defects.

Whatever type of communication will be used, it is important to consider it as an occasion to encourage quality and so it must be effective and easy to understand.

Also Read : Stay hungry, Stay Foolish

Cost of Quality

The cost of quality includes the cost of hiring developers to write clean and maintainable code, the cost of writing test cases, managing the test cases and detecting defects, the cost of retaining the developers to continue building and fixing the defects, and the cost implication on the organization when poor quality software is delivered — external failure cost.

The cost of quality is already high, effective communication will help to enhance the reputation for product and process quality and thereby provide business value.

Article Submitted by Charity Odoh

The post A Quality Assurance Guide on Test Reporting appeared first on Prunedge Development Technologies.]]> https://prunedge.com/a-quality-assurance-guide-on-test-reporting/feed/ 0 https://prunedge.com/prunedge-partners-with-tech4dev-to-redefine-valentines-day-with-love-act-2-0-initiative/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prunedge-partners-with-tech4dev-to-redefine-valentines-day-with-love-act-2-0-initiative https://prunedge.com/prunedge-partners-with-tech4dev-to-redefine-valentines-day-with-love-act-2-0-initiative/#respond Tue, 22 Mar 2022 22:22:09 +0000 https://clone.prunedge.com/?p=5570 The Love Act initiative is a yearly commitment driven by the need to express love to people beyond the family construct, reaching out to our immediate communities, engaging, educating, and meeting them at certain points of need. This stems from/feeds into both organization’s values to be agents of social and development impact with innovative yet […]