Apple Card: How it works

Apple is widening its financial interests with the launch of new credit card Apple Card

In brief

Apple announced plans to launch its own credit card in partnership with Mastercard and Goldman Sachs earlier this week, a new digital service and physical card which the company claims can help customers lead a “healthier financial life”.

What is Apple Card? 

Apple Card is both a digital service and a physical, titanium credit card. The latter is designed to be used when Apple Pay, the company’s contactless payment system, is unavailable.

While we’re here, what is Apple Pay? 

Apple Pay was first announced in September 2014, and uses near-field communication (NFC) technology to make payments on contactless terminals or online using Apple devices. Chip and pin technology, while widespread in the UK, does not exist in the US, meaning many tech-savvy Americans rely on mobile payment systems like Apple or Google Pay to make quick and easy tap transactions, instead of swiping a card. Apple Pay has been used for 10bn transactions to date, Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, said during the Apple Card launch on its Californian campus.

Cool. So how does Apple Card work? 

Apple Card is nested inside Wallet, the pre-installed iPhone app which stores credit or debit cards linked to Apple Pay, boarding passes for flights and other digital passes. Those interested in applying for one can do so through the app, and can expect an approval or rejection within minutes, Apple confirmed during the launch event on Monday.

Much like Monzo, transactions are ranked into categories such as Shopping, Entertainment and Food & Drinks, which are also colour-coordinated to provide an at-a-glance summary of the kind of things you’ve been buying on any given day.

Users can access weekly and monthly spending summaries, which it says will highlight correlations and spending patterns users may find helpful in developing healthier financial habits.

Transaction information is kept secure using the Secure Element security chip present in Apple Pay-compatible iPhones, and payment are authorised using either facial recognition system Face ID or fingerprint scanning feature Touch ID.

Pending payments are visible within the app, alongside the date they’re due and a list of recent transactions. Transactions can also be pinpointed using Apple Maps, which can help to jog your memory with a location if you’re unsure about a payment you’ve made.

What about fees? 

Users aren’t charged annual, late, international or over-the-limit fees, even when payments are missed – although interest on the balance will continue to build up at the usual rate. Apple says it wants to provide interest rates “among the lowest in the industry,” claiming to be the first credit card “that actually encourages you to pay less interest”.

If a user is unable to pay off their monthly balance on the last day of the month, the system estimates how much the interest would cost, and also encourages “you to pay a little more than you normally would, and help you pay off your balance faster”. It’s also possible to set up weekly or bi-weekly payments around when you get paid, to chip away at the overall amount owed more quickly.

What are the rewards like? 

The card offers a cash back rewards scheme called Daily Cash, which adds money to a separate Apple Cash card each day, which can be put towards purchases using Apple Pay. There’s no limit on how much cash you can accrue, and it can be spent like cash.

Users will receive 2 per cent Daily Cash on purchases made using Apple Pay on the card, 3 per cent on purchases made directly with Apple and 1 peer cent on in a shop, website or app which doesn’t yet take Apple Pay.

Tell me more about the titanium card… 

Where Apple Pay is not accepted, the user can apply for and use a titanium physical spending card, which does not feature the owner’s card number, CVV security code, signature or expiration date, which Apple claims makes it more secure than other physical credit cards. Instead, only the owner’s name is laser-etched onto the front. A virtual card number is generated for use from within the Wallet app, and it autofills forms for payment when you’re making a payment through Apple’s Safari browser.

Is it coming to the UK? 

While Apple confirmed the service would launch in the US from the summer, it’s believed to be planning a UK launch at some point in the future. How can I contact Apple once I’ve got one? The company offers support services via text message.

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How DevOps Shaping App Business Economy?

From magnetic cards to the cloud, it has been a long and speedy journey of the IT revolution. Software development went through the different phases, where it’s directed towards making things easier and affirmative for the prospective steps.

The Android platform came as the top gear for the custom software development industry, which took it to the world of innovative and powerful tools.

The replacement of the web application with the mobile apps was hit by the trends which although make a negative feedback story for the apps.

According to data, 90 percent of the apps installed by the user loses the engagement within three months of use while the charm of the app starts fading away from the second month. This fact may perturb the developers at once, but in the long run, it showed the efficacy in the form of rapid development tools.

The time started demanding the quick launch of the application, which brought the development and operations together on the same platform for website development companies. This gave birth to DevOps.

A Short Overview of DevOps

Not so old concept of DevOps is aimed at breaking the silos between Development and Operational team, which cleared the path for the speedy delivery of the applications.

A good mobile app development company believes in the continuous delivery and senses it the first and prior most requirement of the imperative economy.

DevOps leverages the transparent communication and collaboration between two crucial wheels of development with feature-rich experience for developers and negligible downtime.

DevOps brings no new set of tools, but it unlocks the potential of competitive advantage with increased collaboration. In fact, DevOps is aimed at automating the process, earlier, which used to be manually carried forward.

Short Overview of DevOps

The businesses aim at bringing the affirmative change in existing tools where the glitches are assessed through the implementation of uneven production demands. It gives rise to the seamless interaction with innovative tools, and developers put them over real-world situations for testing and validating the efficacy of solutions.

Why Is DevOps Favorable Choice for Mobile App Development Companies?

The facts discussed above support the fast development, deployment, and delivery of the applications. There has been an ever-increasing pressure over developers for better user experience and seamless integration of the apps.

The advancement in technology and increased demands for machine-to-machine interaction put the legitimate reason for the tools, which demands little to no human interaction while maintaining the constant communication between development and operation team.

DevOps completes the requirement and copes up with the increase in pressure for rapid and secure development. The collaboration between Development and Operations unlocks the potential and competitive advantage.

Increased profitability, the optimum level of customer's satisfaction, enhanced market share and easiness to achieve the common organizational goals.

How The DevOps Help Economy?

DevOps is not new. More than 80 percent of the website development companies responded that they have adopted DevOps up to an extent, but it is more or less limited to the silos rather been implemented over the functions.

The businesses, who fully embrace the DevOps, tend to extract far more benefits but there are some obstacles, which prevents the user from complete adoptions such as budget constraints, lack of knowledge/strategy and security problems.

How DevOps Benefits In Business?

How Does DevOps Impact?

It unravels the certain remarkable benefits, with the early release and packaging of the products. With the adoption, DevOps results into the 75 percent reduction of the time required to develop, test and packaging of the product.

The shift from the basic to the more advanced DevOps adoption comes with better key performance indicators and business growth. The optimized technology results in a 30 percent increase in customer satisfaction through the one-third improvement in the time and quality of the app.

The full integration clearly increases the prowess of the tools and stretches the output to the broad spectrum of benefits with the successful digital transformation.

The benefits are not just bound inside the financial boundaries but go beyond with increase credibility and better time management, turning into better strategies, which lead towards the high Return of investment.

The custom software development business demands higher supplies and improved quality with every single launch. An ever-increasing requirement poses serious issues if not treated effectively.

The development and operation department can easily maneuver the strategies with cross skilling and collaborative working.

Few benefits are:

• Operational support and faster fixes.
• Automation across teams
• Happier engagement
• Cross-skilling 
• Self-improvement 

The shift from the existing format to the new one always takes a load of effort and management. However, the top-down commitment with the transparency and collaboration between team members results in the impeccable and light-paced production.

Faster the production is, the better the user response would be. Early feedback to the development team improves CDD integration.

Leaving one technology, which suits you best, is no option, instead, you must focus over the increases ROI which only possible when integrated wisely to the current system.

If you want to know more about DevOps Service, please visit TMA DevOps Service Center to find out more information.

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Chief Information Officers are targeting Automation technologies, AI, and robotics

To stay ahead, CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, and other executives integrating leading-edge technologies into their companies' operations and business models must turn their attention to automation technologies, including intelligent machines, robotic processautomation (RPA) bots, artificial intelligence, and physical robotics. Automation encompasses a diverse set of technologies that run the gamut from sensing (gathering and evaluating data to determine when and why to act) to adapting (determining how to act, then sequencing and executing tasks); true automation requires both types of activities.

Automation continues to gain new prominence as it transforms a wider array of business processes than ever before. It's reshaping jobs and how we perform them. It's altering the operations that underpin customer experience, helping us to design, produce, distribute, and support products and services far more effectively. It's directly improving customer experiences, allowing companies to employ solutions like personalization -- at scale -- for the first time.

CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, and other leaders driving technology innovation should keep in mind the wide-ranging impact automation technologies will have on their businesses. These include examples like:

AI-enhanced RPA. AI is only one dimension of automation, which also includes many sub-AI-level algorithms and tools. But increasingly, AI suffuses and boosts many different automation technologies -- or will do so in the near future. For example, while RPA is creating a lot of operational value today, its future lies in cognitive-AI enhancement, a technology convergence that will solve many more business problems and will do so in a more sophisticated fashion.

Software-defined infrastructure. Automation starts deep inside a company's infrastructure; in fact, the modern CIO's infrastructure is now largely based on software. Infrastructure-as-code, including containers, has become the new foundation of modern enterprise infrastructures.

Marketing automation. Automation isn't just a phenomenon of infrastructure or back-end processes. Marketing automation is reshaping the very basis of how firms communicate with customers and prospects. For example, AI vendor marketing technology leverages big data and AI to determine whether specific words and phrases will resonate with prospective customers, conducting large-scale, multifaceted A/B tests to inform these decisions.

Computer vision. Automation will increasingly cross the physical-digital divide. One battery manufacturer traditionally used human inspectors to determine whether batteries passed quality assurance tests. The company started with a 2D solution, but later migrated to a fully automated solution using 3D cameras and sophisticated software. Doing so drove new levels of success -- a nearly 100-percent fault detection and elimination of the 2D solution's 8% to 10% false rejection rate.

Physical robotics. And physical robots are finally becoming genuine drivers of business value outside of the automotive industry. Retail and warehouse robotics is reshaping how firms deliver products through retail and eCommerce. Companies are driving a new wave of business process reengineering, helping competitors reshape warehousing and logistics. 

About us 

TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,400 engineers. Our engineering team was selected from a large pool of Vietnam IT resources; they are well-trained and have successfully completed many large and complex projects. Visit us at: https://www.tmasolutions.com/

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The solution of the biggest tech bloats of modern businesses

While most businesses have gone digital today, use of technology by itself does not ensure efficiency or productivity. This article highlights the tech habits slowing down productivity and what companies can do to resolve them.

Over the last two decades, the workplace has been remodeled from a rigid suit-and-tie environment to a fluid, casual atmosphere.

Open offices and laptops have replaced cubicles and desktops to encourage team-oriented environments and processes. Talented remote workers add value to organizations from anywhere in the world, whether for single gigs, part-time work or full-time work. Virtual collaboration takes over physical meetings through an abundance of communication tools that connect staff from any location.

The torrent of digital solutions has certainly improved internal operations and the customer experience, but so many applications end up weighing down operations. Technology that is supposed to increase productivity may actually slow it down, as team members must jump back and forth between tools to find the data they need. Here are the biggest ways that modern enterprises are overloaded.

1. Running too many applications at once

The onslaught of communication across chat applications and email has created a distracting environment. Psychology research shows that workers lose approximately 24 minutes an hour when switching between tasks. You can reduce unnecessary interruptions and lost time with applications such as process automation, where the correspondence is tied to respective workflows and follows a consistent track.

Collaboration has reached new heights thanks to a host of digital options, but efficiency and data integrity wane when switching between multiple tabs and constantly transferring data between apps. And who isn't aggravated by the excessive login usernames and passwords?

Applications hindering rather than improving performance aren't serving their purpose. To begin an application overhaul, business owners and CIOs should do the following: 

• Evaluate each application's effectiveness. 
• Search for platforms that offer expanded functionality rather than one-trick applications. 
• Integrate final apps using a connector.

2. Relying on human-led processes when machines can manage it better

As more enterprises reap the benefits of automation, robotics and AI, the anxiety over machines taking human jobs has died down. Of the surveyed U.S. workers in a Workfront study, more than 80 percent are excited about the potential of automation to bring greater innovation and better procedures to the workplace. Digital leaders aren't afraid to disrupt operations with machine-driven processes for the sake of long-term survival and success.

At the very least, process automation and integration are must-haves for any modern enterprise. Replacing manual data entry and long email strings, automated workflows seamlessly move data along a chartered route, carrying appropriate tasks in the assigned order from one employee to another. Integration bridges information gaps, transferring data between apps – from a budget approval workflow to accounting software, for instance – streamlining processes and reducing errors.

Robotic processautomation and AI enable companies to pinpoint top-talent candidates in record time, process data to improve decision-making, instantly provide services to clients, and more. Each year, RPA and AI applications take on increasing loads of monotonous work, freeing employees to apply their expertise to cognitive and creative tasks.

3. Manually creating long reports

Juggling data from multiple systems to create reports consumes time most employees would rather apply to skilled work. What's more, with today's cutthroat pace, managers need reports and status updates faster than workers can generate them by hand. For leadership to map progress and future growth consistently, real-time reports should be available at a moment's notice.

Businesses that grasp the value of real-time reporting are now connecting data through automation applications that generate interactive, visual reports. Since information is linked between applications, no one has to compare for accuracy or enter it into a separate reporting app. Just a few clicks, and up-to-date reports or analytics are ready for evaluation.

4. Missing out on valuable insights

For companies with a revolving door of staff, employees often exit with untapped, valuable knowledge about the business and its practices. Not conducting thorough exit interviews that include operational insights is a lost opportunity to address perceived weaknesses and capitalize on strengths within the company.

Leading organizations aren't losing out on this information. They adopt digital strategies, such as automated offboarding processes, to standardize the exit process and ensure each employee has a documented exit interview that is sent to an assigned manager, who is responsible for following up internally.

Annual performance reviews frustrate employees who are determined to grow in their positions and careers. In fact, 65 percent of employees want more feedback than they currently receive. Frequent career training opportunities, including more consistent feedback, would keep 86 percent of millennials from leaving their positions. Managers may not realize they are missing a chance to not only help employees improve, but also gain fresh perspectives from varying points of view.

Data-centered, regular performance feedback leads to high productivity and lower turnover. In contrast to traditional annual reviews, real-time performance appraisals are fair, unbiased and standard.

Taking your digital inventory

A modern company isn't merely defined by computer use. A truly digital workplace is one where current tools are strategically applied toward for maximum productivity and effective collaboration.

Uprooting old practices can be daunting, but for many businesses, the alternatives are seeing profits sag or closing the doors in the next five years. Taking the time and money to get it right is a worthy investment for a promising future. 

About us 

TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,400 engineers. Our engineering team was selected from a large pool of Vietnam IT resources; they are well-trained and have successfully completed many large and complex projects. Visit us at: https://www.tmasolutions.com/

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DevOps reshapes career paths as well as business methods

Why is DevOps now so important to software teams and their businesses? 

Let's count the ways, says Mark Levy, director of strategy for software delivery at Micro Focus. He recently shared his observations on the current state of software delivery, which include the following: 

"Heavyweight, linear-sequential development and delivery software practices." 

"Large, infrequent software releases supported by complex and manual processes for testing and deploying software."

"Overly complex and tightly-coupled application infrastructures."

"The perception of security, compliance and performance as an after-thought and a barrier to business activity and innovation."

These weighty old methods of software delivery -- siloed, and via waterfall methods -- only mean "large amounts of technical debt and rework, which inhibits adoption of new technologies," he says. 

Enter DevOps, which, as a discipline, has been on the scene for close to a decade, but has garnered a great deal of interest over the past two years. DevOps, which aligns and automates the activities of developers and operations teams to promote continuous integration and delivery, "represents one of the biggest IT transformation initiatives of the past 30 years," Levy says. Ultimately, the rise of DevOps means significant changes ahead in the career paths and skills requirements of IT managers and professionals as well.

Still, despite all the hoopla over DevOps in recent years, he adds, true adoption "has been slower than expected." DevOps has proven itself as the way to accelerate an enterprise's transformation to digital, "but the conservative nature of enterprise IT has many organizations stalled and waiting for the push from the executive team to cross the DevOps chasm," Levy says.

Once DevOps is in place, he continues, it helps promote a culture of continuous improvement. However, he cautions, "there are no silver bullets, and continuous improvement is not linear as it tends to follow a J-curve. Early and easy wins to help build momentum, but eventually things get harder and quite often you will see a regression."   

Still, Levy sees DevOps accelerating over the coming months, as the many DevOps pilot programs give way to actual enterprise realities. "Up until now, most DevOps implementations in the enterprise were focused on at the team level," he points out. Making the leap into the enterprise will now require "a seismic shift in the way an organization plans, builds, tests, releases, and manages applications." To achieve this, Levy urges DevOps proponents to "work through the early regressions as greater success lies ahead. DevOps does not have an end state as organizations are always optimizing, improving, experimenting, and learning."   

The challenge managers face at this time, he says, is promulgating DevOps principles across the enterprise -- especially those with large, complex, and legacy-laden systems. Part of the issue is the need for more DevOps skills to move things forward. "A lack of skilled development, testing and delivery personnel means that manual efforts cannot scale, so many organizations struggle to release software in a repeatable and reliable manner," Levy points out. Automation can help pave the way to greater enterprise adoption, which "can shorten the time it takes to delivery application updates while eliminating the security vulnerabilities, data loss, and downtime associated with today's deployment processes."

This means rethinking how IT departments and workflows are structured as well. DevOps is helping to "redefine how organizations and teams are structured, with automation redefining the types of skills and jobs needed to support the deployment pipeline," he says. Increased automation of software delivery and deployment will shift many tasks. "The deployment pipeline is the end-to-end process of taking a business idea and delivering it as value to the customer, so most jobs that provide manual services in this pipeline are prime candidates for automation," he adds. "While some tasks can't be automated, most can and will be." 

While some tasks may be eliminated, new tasks will emerge. "For example, a system administrator must learn how to design and develop the automation policies and scripts that support the deployment pipeline, while a  quality assurance test engineer starts working with developers to design and deliver the automated test scripts," says Levy. "Leveraging domain expertise by updating skills to support the automation of IT will be crucial.  Automation will replace people in routine, codifiable tasks, but when problem-solving skills, adaptability, and creativity are required, people will still have the advantage. Automation frees up valuable development resources, who can refocus on creating customer value for the business." 

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Tencent to take on Google, Amazon and Xiaomi in India's mobile payment market

Tencent is looking to launch its mobile payment service WeChat Pay in India this year, in a bid to take on Google Pay and Paytm.

The Chinese tech giant has reportedly met with executives from the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) to obtain a licence for the payments app, according to Entrackr.

Tencent has already partnered with three Indian banks, Axis Bank, HDFC and ICICI and plans to launch the app by the end of June.

The move will see Tencent go head to head with Google, Amazon, WhatsApp and Xiaomi, all of which have launched UPI (Unified Payments Interface) systems in India.

The market is experiencing strong growth and is estimated to have reached Rs 1trn ($14.5bn) in monthly transactions.

The move will enable Tencent to further leverage its popular gaming platforms in India by enabling in-app purchases.

The launch in India comes as Tencent’s gaming business struggles to recover from the Chinese government’s crackdown on new game approvals, with the tech giant posting a 33% decrease in operating profit year-on-year for Q4.

Despite the overall decrease, Tencent revenues grew by 28% in the quarter buoyed by its advertising and cloud business.

Tencent also revealed its total daily payment transaction volume exceeded 1 billion for 2018. The growth was driven by increases in commercial payment revenues and the launch of WeChat Pay outside China in Hong Kong, Malaysia and globally through airports and selected merchants.

Meanwhile, WeChat users reached 1.098 billion in December 2018.

About Us: TMA Solutions - Your Enterprise Software Provider

TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,400 engineers. Our engineering team was selected from a large pool of Vietnam IT resources; they are well-trained and have successfully completed many large and complex projects.

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Growth of mobile payment casts a shadow over ATM manufacturers

The rapid growth of mobile payments in China has brought about a decline in bank self-service terminals including automatic, video and smart teller machines, initiating industry transformation.

As of the end of 2018, the number of ATMs at banks nationwide dropped by 17,800 quarter-on-quarter to 1.11 million. The average number of ATMs per 10,000 people also fell 1.6 percent from the previous quarter to 7.99, said the latest report on the overall operation of payment systems issued by the People's Bank of China, the central bank.

The decrease in ATM numbers triggered a decline in the performance of several companies principally engaged in the manufacturing, distribution and operation of such devices.

Beijing ATMVI Technology Co Ltd, a designer and manufacturer of kiosks, enclosures and housing for ATMs, disclosed preliminary earnings estimates on Feb 28, announcing that it posted a 32.52 percent decrease in operating income year-on-year in 2018 and a 6.99 million yuan ($1.04 million) net loss attributable to shareholders of the company listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations.

"During the reporting period, the deployment of bank self-service terminals including ATMs kept slowing down due to the rapid development of mobile payments. It caused a slump in demand for related products and services of the company and a large decline in our business income," the company said.

Besides, the company said it has not yet made significant progress in business transformation, which led to a turn from profit to loss last year.

Guangzhou Kingteller Technology Co Ltd, another major ATM manufacturer and operator in China, also posted a 32.77 percent drop in operating income year-on-year in 2018 and a 96.22 million yuan net loss attributable to equity holders of the company.

Kingteller is trying to make breakthroughs in various fronts, such as developing a new generation of smart teller machines and providing banks with comprehensive solutions for front-end systems.

ATM supplier GRGBanking also stepped up efforts for transformation and upgrading. In a disclosure of preliminary earnings estimates for 2018, the company said it deepened the exploration of the application of technologies such as biometrics, smart video, smart voice and big data.

Contrary to waning demand for ATMs, mobile payments have been growing fast. Last year, banking institutions handled 60.53 billion mobile payment transactions in China with a total volume of 277.39 trillion yuan, increasing by 61 percent and 37 percent year-on-year respectively, the report said.

A survey conducted by the Payment and Clearing Association of China showed that last year, 80 percent of mobile payment users used this type of service every day. For 43 percent of the users, the average amount for a single payment was below 100 yuan.

About 96 percent of the users chose mobile payments because of its convenience, and more than 80 percent favored the service as they no longer need to carry cash or bank cards. Nearly 46 percent of the users said mobile payments will eventually replace cash, whereas half of the users said they will co-exist, according to the survey.

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Google executive to explore history of artificial intelligence, machine learning

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State alumnus Jay Yonamine, head of data science and global patents at Google, will deliver a lecture titled “A History of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning” at 11:15 a.m. on Friday, March 29, in Paterno Library’s Foster Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Yonamine, who earned a master's degree and a doctorate in political science from Penn State in 2011 and 2013, respectively, is widely recognized as one of the pioneers and thought leaders in the data science field. He is at the forefront of efforts to use “big data” to make policy decisions and at balancing human experience and big data to achieve optimal results. At Google, for example, the company originally created a self-driving car for testing that included a steering wheel and pedals that a human driver could use to override the automated system. However, after Yonamine's tests showed humans intervened at the wrong times and led to less safe outcomes, Google removed the steering wheel from its prototype.

Prior to joining Google, Yonamine held data science and product management positions for assorted legal, insurance and social media companies. He also has consulted for various e-commerce organizations and government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

In addition to his master’s and doctoral degrees from Penn State, Yonamine holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Middlebury College. He is a 2019 recipient of the Penn State Alumni Achievement Award, which recognizes alumni 35 years of age and younger for their extraordinary professional accomplishments.

ABOUT US: TMA Solutions, Your Enterprise for Software Developer

TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,400 engineers. Our engineering team was selected from a large pool of Vietnam IT resources; they are well-trained and have successfully completed many large and complex projects.

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5 Integrated Development Environments For Golang

Created by some of the brilliant minds from Google, Go is an amazing programming language — it is light-weight, open sourced, and suited for today’s microservices architectures. The Golang programming language has become a popular language for developers of all kinds.

Talking about programming, every coder needs a perfect, reliable integrated development environment (IDE) for hassle-free coding experience. An IDE is one of the most extremely useful tools when coding. If in case you don’t know, what is an integrated development environment (IDE), an IDE is a software suite that consists of basic tools required to code software. Usually, an IDE consists of a code editor, a compiler or interpreter, and a debugger. The coder writes and edits the code in the editor, then the compiler translates the code into a readable format (which is executable for a computer). And finally, the debugger tests the code and look for issues or bugs.

Vim

Written in C and Vim Script, Vim is a highly configurable, advanced text editor that provides the power of the Unix editor ‘Vi’, with a more complete feature set. Simply put, it is an improved version of the vi editor. Initially released in November 1991, Vim is also called as “programmer’s editor.” Over the years, it has become so popular that many consider it a complete IDE. That’s is not all, in 2006, Vim was voted one of the most popular editors; in 2015 the Stack Overflow developer survey also stated that Vim is the third most popular text editor. And last years, it bagged the place of the fifth most popular development environment.

Talking about Go coding, Vim’s vim-go plugin comes with all the required elements to provide a hassle-free and smoother environment for Go developers.

Some of the features are:

• Persistent
• multi-level undo tree
• extensive plugin system
• support for hundreds of programming languages and file formats
• powerful search and replace
• integrates with many tools.

JetBrains GoLand

GoLand is a commercial IDE with coding assistance and tool integrations specific for the Go language (it extends the IntelliJ, a Java IDE). The GoLand IDE is designed in such a way that it analyzes the source code, looking for connections between symbols and provide code completion, quick navigation, clever error analysis, formatting, and refactorings.

The latest GoLand version, GoLand 2018.3 comes with additional features that include:

• Change Signature refactoring
• Testify support

Additional tools in the debugger:

• new code inspections and intention actions
• improved code completion
• support for diagrams
• updates for VCS, Docker, and Kubernetes.

Eclipse

When we talk about IDEs, we cannot ignore Eclipse, Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) is one of the most widely used Java IDEs. Eclipse is definitely one those IDEs that developers use when they start out with coding. Having a plug-in architecture that offers a great deal of power, flexibility, and extensibility, Eclipse over the years have gained tremendous popularity. Now, with the GoClipse (which is an Eclipse extension that adds IDE functionality for the Go programminglanguage), Go coders can use Eclipse IDE for their programming. Also, both the Eclipse IDE and GoClipse plugin are not only free but also open source.

Some of the GoClipse features:

• a source code editor
• a project wizard and builder to help report in-editor build errors
• a fully featured GDB debugger support.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a source code editor that works on Windows, Linux, and macOS. The IDE is free and open source and it was released under the permissive MIT License. According to the Stack Overflow 2018 Developer Survey, Visual Studio Code was ranked the most popular development tool.

For Go coder, Visual Studio Code comes with a Go extension — the plugin, vscode-go has a number of Go tools that offers Go coders language features such as IntelliSense, code navigation, symbol search, bracket matching, snippets and many more. Also, Visual Studio’s VS Code offers support for dozens of languages.

LiteIDE

Authored by visualfc, directly targeting to Golang, LiteIDE is a simple, open source Go IDE. The IDE is created in such a way the working with it feels similar to IDEs like Visual Studio. As the IDE is completely Golang focused, its features are considered to most comfortable for Golang coders.

Its features include:

• configurable build commands
• advanced code editor
• extensive Golang support
• code management
• gdb
• Delve debugger
• auto-completion and theming with WordApi
• MIME type based system etc.

About Us 

TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,400 engineers. Our engineering team was selected from a large pool of Vietnam IT resources; they are well-trained and have successfully completed many large and complex projects. Visit us at: https://www.tmasolutions.com/

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Changes coming from Robotics Process Automation.

The fourth industrial revolution (IR4.0) is making waves in the business world, with industries scrambling to adapt to fast-changing technological trends, in order to stay relevant in today’s market.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2018, one of the top ten professions at the highest risk of being automated is the finance and accounting profession, which will be a ‘declining’ profession by 2022.

For accounting and finance to evolve in the value curve, professionals must move on from repetitive transactional work and become partners that can value add and undertake strategic work for the businesses they serve.

“The conundrum is this: finance and accounting professionals are spending 90% of their time performing transactional work, leaving them very little time for value add, let alone strategic finance,” said the founder and chief executive officer of a finance, procurement and HR transformation provider.

The core of finance and accounting involves transactional work such as making payments to suppliers, ensuring salaries and expense claims are paid to employees, as well as issuing invoices to customers, collecting monies and providing financial performance information of the organization.

Currently, most accountants, finance managers and even shared services professionals spend the bulk of their time in the transactional work; i.e. in the “preparing” and “producing”; which is precisely the areas within finance and accounting where the automation and robotic evolution has begun.

Automating and robotizing these repetitive processes, which tend to be voluminous and prone to error, would increase efficiency and accuracy.

She said that it will also enable finance and accounting professionals to become respected brainstorming partners for businesses, as they will be able to focus on value add activities such as forecasting, budgeting and various analytical work, including comparing supply chain cost and product line profitability.

Moreover, finance professionals will be able to lead corporate activities such as funding, listing, and mergers and acquisitions. One important aspect, she noted, is on resource allocation coupled with relevant return on investment analysis.

She said, “It is truly the time to stop pushing the rectangular wheel, take a step back and analyze how to shape the wheel into a round one, in order to propel your organization towards agility and competitive edge.”

To move forward, the key lies in the awareness of opportunities, technology solutions and successful implementation.

“We can look at learning from the global business services and finance shared services organizations in Malaysia, which have been pushing the frontier in automating transactional work via automation, Robotics Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence and making inroads in delivering value add finance work to their businesses,” she added. As the finance and accounting profession rises to the challenge of IR4.0, she said it is key to network, learn and share from peers in the industry.

About Us

TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,400 engineers. Our engineering team was selected from a large pool of Vietnam IT resources; they are well-trained and have successfully completed many large and complex projects. Visit us at: https://www.tmasolutions.com/

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How easy is getting started in Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

Let’s say your company just found out about robotic process automation (RPA) – software that automates data entry and other repetitive processes. Maybe you read about it on the internet. Maybe you attended a conference. Maybe you were fortunate enough to attend a user group meeting hosted by one of the major RPA vendors. You’re excited! You’re energized! You can’t wait to get started!  But where do you begin?

The simplest way to begin is to find out more about RPA – how it can help a business and what its potential is. Fear not. Loads of information – and an overabundance of opinion – are available about the uses for RPA, the results, the advantages and disadvantages. Information about vendors that make software to support RPA and the best practices companies can use to achieve the targeted results is also out there.

The best way to get a sense of the technology is to get your hands on it: Get to know the RPA software vendors and the products, and then ask for a demonstration or trial version of the software. Follow these four steps to get started:

1. Know the vendors. The RPA market is dynamic with new firms and products entering all the time. While some vendors are well established and have credentials and an extensive installed base, others are seeking to gain traction. Businesses considering a vendor or software solution need to know a provider is viable, that it has installed the product in similar businesses or industries, and it has a defined growth path for additional features and functions. Educate yourself on the vendor landscape as a way to make an informed decision.

2. Try the software. Many of the vendors in the RPA space offer a demonstration or a trial version of their software. This is a great way to obtain hands-on experience with the product. Additionally, many of the vendors provide online documentation and training materials to help new users get started. Download the software it if it is available.

3. Experiment. Many businesses prefer to begin their RPA journeys by experimenting with a variety of products. This helps potential users become familiar with the products and better understand not only the differences between them, but also how they are used and how to automate one or more processes. While experimenting with the software, businesses inevitably learn more about the vendor and the market. This information also can be used during the final selection of a solution.

4. Implement for real. Of course, an organization needs more than experimentation to make a sound decision and optimize the resources needed to launch a successful RPA program. When the business is serious and ready to start the journey, we recommend starting with either a proof of concept or a process assessment. It’s possible to take the “proof of concept in a day” approach, during which an organization rapidly gets to know the process targeted for automation and can quickly compare the impact of RPA to the existing manual process. A business can use this experience to launch a discussion about how best to use RPA.

Once an organization has familiarity with the technology, the next step is to conduct one of two process assessments:

• A deep-dive process assessment includes a detailed examination of processes, interviews with subject-matter experts and observation of existing jobs. This process typically takes about one week per business division.
• A rapid assessment is a workshop-based approach typically completed in a day or less. The workshop begins with a discussion of which processes are good candidates for RPA and is followed by breakout sessions with subject-matter experts to obtain an understanding of each process, using targeted questions to understand what processes should be analyzed. This is all done in a whiteboard or wall-chart-type environment, where you can detail and prioritize processes.

Both types of assessments result in similar results: a description of each targeted process, the ability to automate each process, the possible pain points, and the potential benefits and savings. The assessments also should provide businesses time and cost estimates to build the automation, a business case and a roadmap. These results often form the basis for a funding request for RPA software and associated services to install the software and launch the program.

The POC and process assessment give an organization the information it needs to begin to use RPA. Best practices include:

• Engaging the IT team early and working with it to successfully install the software and plan for needed prerequisites, back-ups and ongoing support and maintenance
• Training the team that will use the technology, including hands-on experience with the software tool, building the automations and controls and hardening the system to ensure the automations run consistently and reliably
• Launching an in-house RPA center of excellence and embracing a robotic operating model, including planning for organization and staffing, focusing on building the automations and supporting them, developing technical and performance standards and managing related organizational changes
• Speeding up the launch of the software and the program as a way to generate positive results to help fund the effort
• Building bots to define, design, configure and test the automated processes and deploy them as rapidly as possible, so the RPA program can scale horizontally and vertically within the enterprise
• Monitoring the automations to assure they are running and making repairs and modifications if necessary, ensuring the automated processes do their work faster and better.

About Us

TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,400 engineers. Our engineering team was selected from a large pool of Vietnam IT resources; they are well-trained and have successfully completed many large and complex projects. Visit us at: https://www.tmasolutions.com/

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