Storing Data on the Blockchain (p1)

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Everyone knows of Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple as the new forms of money and currency as it stores the transactions as digital packs of data within blocks. However, there is no reason this data cannot be extended beyond just financial data. In theory, any form of data can be stored on a blockchain. So, why don’t we store our important data on the blockchain network so that nobody can change it while everybody can access it?

There are many reasons you might want to store data (documents) or hashes of data on a blockchain, and multiple ways to do this. People will not store big sized data on the well-known network like Bitcoin and Ethererum because they’re super expensive. But there’re various projects are currently innovating around this idea, each proposing different methods with different trade-offs.

In this series, we’ll go through:

  1. The need for storing data (documents) on Blockchain, why should we use Blockchain anyway
  2. The different ways to store data on a Blockchain. It’s either be storing the whole data or just a Hash of it.
  3. And the promising projects (networks) that specialize for storing data on Blockchain

Why Should We Store Data on Blockchain?

Throughout 2017 and 2018, there was a huge amount of hype around the applications of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Data storage is a much drier and less exciting application. However, it is deliverable, with multiple improvements over existing data storage systems.

Tamper Resistance

Immutability is perhaps the most important benefit a blockchain provides. Cryptographically linked blocks provide a record immune from tampering.
This tamper resistance is highly effective in preventing the counterfeiting of documents and document fraud. If you cannot store the actual document on the blockchain due to file size limitations, then even storing a hash of the document makes a lot of sense.

Documents often take up a lot of space, compared to financial transactions, which blockchains like Bitcoin are designed for. It is often not feasible to store a whole document on a blockchain. Hashes take up just a small fraction of this space, therefore, are a much more efficient option.

Storing just the hash still offers you tamper resistance. Whenever you change the input of a file, its corresponding hash value will always change. This is a vital benefit secure hash algorithms provide. Regardless of where you store your document, whether in a centralized system like MySQL or in a distributed database like Azure, you can still verify the document has not been tampered with by rehashing it and comparing it to the blockchain-stored hash.

Visibility

Using a public blockchain is a great way to make your document accessible to the public. Of course, you need to be absolutely confident that you want to make it fully visible. Once you store the document or its hash on the blockchain, it will be there permanently. There is no way to change data once you include it in a block.

A blockchain is certainly not the only way to do this. However, given its level of security and tamper-resistance, you can be confident of permanent visibility.
Of course, you could also use a federated or private blockchain if you wanted to limit access to your documents. Such blockchains can provide you with the ability to offer permanent visibility to a preselected group. These alternatives will, however, undermine decentralization and possibly tamper-resistance.

Need for Decentralization

The final reason to use a blockchain is if you require decentralization. Perhaps the nature of your document means that you cannot reliably trust a third-party storage provider to not tamper with or delete the document.

One such instance would be politically sensitive files, which malicious parties could target if published. By uploading the document or its hash to a public blockchain you would have peace of mind that it is safe from state or corporate censorship. Of course, choosing the correct blockchain is very important here. Blockchains are not all made alike. If the consensus protocol is not properly decentralized or allows full nodes to reverse or censor transactions, then you will have the same problems as using traditional systems.

In the next post of this series, we’ll cover Different ways to store data on a Blockchain. Stay tuned!

Hung Le

Full stack with Laravel & Vue.js (p2) – Vue concepts

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In the last post, I’d introduced what Vue is. We can get started with coding right now, but why I write this post, it’s also just theory?

Ok, ok, calm down. In this series, I want to discuss Laravel and Vue.js (we will use Nuxt – a Vue framework). So, before we start, we will research important concepts that we need to know.

Let’s get started!

  1. Template

By default, Vue will use an HTML file for its template. An included script will declare an instance of Vue and use the el property in the configuration object to tell Vue where in the template the app will be mounted. And we can bind data to our template by creating it as a data property and using the mustache syntax to print it in the page:

 

  1. Directives

Similar to Angular, we can add functionality to our templates by using directives. These are special properties we add to HTML tags starting with the v- prefix.

Example: We have an array of data. We can render this data to the page as sequential HTML elements by using the v-for directive:

  1. Components

Components extend basic HTML elements and allow you to create your own reusable custom elements. But probably the main reason to use components is that it makes it easier to architect a larger application. Functionality can be broken into reuseable, self-contained components.

Example: Here I’ve created a custom element, grocery-item, which renders as a li. The text child of that node is sourced from a custom HTML property, title, which is accessible from within the component code:

  1. Reactivity

A key feature of Vue’s design is its reactivity system. When you modify data, the view automatically updates to reflect that change.

Example: If we create a function that pushes another item to our array of grocery items after the page has already been rendered, the page will automatically re-render to reflect that change:

  1. Single-file component

A drawback of using components is that you need to write your template in a JavaScript string outside of your main HTML file. There are ways to write template definitions in your HTML file, but then you have an awkward separation between markup and logic. A convenient solution to this is single-file components. These files have the .vue extension and encapsulate the component template, JavaScript configuration, and style all in a single file. Web browser can’t read these files, so they need to be first processed by a build tool such as Webpack.

Example: I create a file named example.vue

  1. Vue Router

Vue Router allows you to map different states of your SPA to different URLs, giving you virtual pages. For example, twentyci.asia/ might be the front page of a blog and have a component hierarchy like this:

Whereas twentyci.asia/post/1 might be an individual post from the blog and look like this:

 

Changing from one page to the other doesn’t require a reload of the page, just swapping the middle component to reflect the state of the URL, which is exactly what Vue Router does.

 

  1. Vuex

Vuex provides a powerful way to manage the data of an application as the complexity of the UI increases, by centralizing the application’s data into a single store. We will talk more about Vuex during coding.

 

There are more concepts but we will talk about them while coding each part. In the next post, we will setup our base project and make some configurations. Thanks for reading. See you!

Huy Hoang

What’s it like to be a Front-End Developer?

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Having learned HTML, CSS, and JS, Front-End Developers (FED) are forced to take functionality into account when creating user experiences or making sure that the two disciplines work as one from a development perspective. They become all-rounded, having to understand what is actually happening between the AJAX data and the PHP file that’s sending off a mail or returning errors.

If you’re already sure about front-end development, go ahead and read on.

Front-end development skills needed

When starting out in front-end, you might not be sure where to start. There are so many options available not only programming language-wise, but regarding tools, frameworks, and technologies as well. So make sure you are prepared of the open sea. Or as Ivan (Ivan Kutil – Google Developers) would state it: “Front-end development is like an ocean. You happen to have a ship, but no map. First learn the shallow waters, then go deep.”

  1. Learn HTML & CSS. And become good at it.

I guess there’s no way around it. Learn HTML & CSS. Why? Because of the basics matter. There are all kinds of different online courses available on how to get started with HTML and CSS. First things first. Sign up at Online courses like Coursera or Team Treehouse. After finishing some initial courses, go ahead and create some static web pages and iterate over and over again. I also recommend developing some small UI elements for practicing your newly learned HTML & CSS skills. Codepen.io is a great playground for that. Browse other people’s projects and participate in the community there.

  1. Build things.

Playing around with (small) UI elements is one thing. Creating an actual landing page or website is something different. At some point, you will eventually start using JavaScript snippets. Don’t forget to challenge yourself by building first responsive elements. So there’s only one way to become better at what you’re doing: Keep learning, keep building. Putting these two together, build to learn! There’s no better way to learn than to get your hands dirty. You’ve probably heard this a hundred times by now, but it is for a good reason why this is the advice most often dished out.

  1. Read, read, read

I guess there’s no way around this. Believe it or not. Your reading skills greatly influence your path to become a great front-end developer. Especially when starting out, there’s a lot of reading required. Why?

At first, you’ll probably read a lot of articles, guides, and manuals on how to do different things. You’ll also start reading other people’s code. Or as Adam (ADAM Software Development – Google Groups) would state: “Combine that with a good book like Eloquent JavaScript, and you can up your programming game very quickly.”

  1. There’s more to Front-end development than building a website

If you followed my tips from 1 to 3, you have probably already done a course or have read a lot of tutorials and are now able to throw together a website. However, that doesn’t equate to being a “front-end developer”. Knowing how to build a website is a very small part of the front-end puzzle. I apologize if that sounds demotivating. But that’s actually the case. There is a whole load of topics that you still should learn about. If we consider performance, testing, QA and many other areas, then you really need to become a deep diver as a front-end developer.

  1. Version control will save your life.

OK, maybe this sounds a bit too exaggerated. But trust me on that. Version control will save you some sleepless nights. Instead of trying something and having it blow up in your face or hitting ctrl+z a trillion times, you can simply trash your branch and roll back to what was working previously. So make sure to become an expert at Git. It will not only save you countless hours, but it will also give you more confidence to try new things.

  1. Be the middleman

As a FED, you need to be aware that you put yourself in some kind of middleman role. As a middleman, you are in touch with QA people, clients, UX experts as well as other developers. You will need to take different perspectives into consideration. That is why, besides learning the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you need to make sure to be able to communicate clearly.

  1. Do not rush

Along the way, you will ask yourself why you do this and you may want to just stop. It may be tempting to just give up. But don’t. If you’re at that point, I have only one advice for you: Do not give up! Set aside one or two hours every other day to learn. Take a lot of breaks and make sure that you really know the basics. And never rush. The basics form the foundation which will help you get to the next level. If you feel stuck, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Everyone goes through this phase and having the patience to stick it out will help you come out in the end as a pro in front-end development.

  1. Dive deep into frameworks

So, you made it until here. Awesome! Now it’s time to get involved with certain frameworks. Start by looking at the more popular ones and work out for yourself why they do things in a certain way. Figure out whether each one is a good thing. Understand how frameworks and industry standards have changed over the last couple of years. Looking at older frameworks, you will probably discover approaches and code which are now obsolete. Do not forget: Sometimes, using a framework isn’t the best option, but most of the time it’s well worth knowing about them.

  1. Get involved with open source projects

Contribute to GitHub. Don’t shy away from big frameworks that seem well established. Even framework authors make mistakes. You may be spending most of your time reading code but don’t see it as a waste of time. You will pick up good habits and practices along the way and will gain some experience working with other developers. When you feel ready to write some code, go through issues on the repository and pick one problem which is manageable for you. Getting involved with various projects, especially open source, will not only make you a better FED, but it will also help you build up your very own online brand as an active, experienced developer.

 

Wrapping it up

The path to becoming a front-end developer will definitely take some time. As presented in this blog post, becoming a front-end developer is not only about learning various front-end frameworks and programming languages. It’s about the interaction, responsibilities, and roles as a FED. Because the web is a rapidly evolving universe, great front-end developers should never stop learning. Even little things like following front-end experts on Twitter will have an impact on your learning curve. You need to have some patience to get there. Rushing doesn’t make sense because it won’t make you happy. Never forget to have fun while learning and experimenting.

Looking for an opportunity to improve yourself in a youthful, professional environment? Why don’t you join us at  TwentyCi Asia? And make sure to share & subscribe if you find this post helpful. Good luck and have fun!

Thanh Tran        

Freelancer-Why not?

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A freelancer or freelance worker is a term commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer for a long-term. However, full-time employees also can do freelance jobs out of working hours.

Right now, I am a full-time developer at TwentyCi Vietnam with good monthly salary and benefits package. I’m still working for other companies as a freelancer out of office hours to get extra income. It’s really a good choice if you apply CV to TwentyCI Asia where you can develop your career and skills quickly as well as having an attractive salary package.

It’s not easy to start becoming a freelancer

In the IT field, most developers who are good at English and independent can work as freelancers. They may be fond of freedom, be a little adventurous and unconstraint. Actually, it was for money that I became a freelancer. Two years ago, I had planned to move to HCM City for living and working. As I didn’t want to make any negative impact to a big project of the company I worked at that time, I resigned and applied for a remote job at a foreign company which has a subsidiary in Vietnam.

Starting to become a freelancer is probably a challenge to anyone who is a developer. Why? One of the biggest misconceptions about freelancing is that you sit at home and work comes to you. When the reality is that you have to fight for it, and fight hard.

When you bid on a project at website freelancer.com, beside than having a nice profile and a proposal letter, an employer will look at three important criteria to evaluate a candidate:

  • Rating and Review/Feedback
  • Earnings
  • Completion Rate

Both of the above criteria are important. At my first thought, Rating and Review/Feedback is the most important criteria as long as you got 5 stars. But after doing a fake project (created and hired by yourself) then I found that Earnings and Completion are the most important ones. Even you got 3 stars or 5 star but low earnings then you can’t be on the top of the candidate list for a project. And if no project is taken mean that you have no earnings.

The patient one is the winner

At first, during a long time, I constantly bid, constantly checked and looked for suitable projects, but it seems like I wasn’t so lucky. Until after 5 days of searching, bidding, again and again, I finally got a small project: edit HTML / CSS for a forum running on VBB platform. My first feeling is happy, cheery. But then I began to feel like “I’m selling my labor cheaply”. And after all, I finished the project in 6 hours. Even when the project closed, I also offered after-sales service for the customer to support new banner during the next one month. But on the following days, I did not get any other project, so I had changed the strategy:

  • Bid on the odd jobs
  • Bid on projects with a small budget
  • Go through carefully the job description, and mention it in the proposal letter
  • Undersell the service: offer a lower price
  • Response to the customer quickly
  • Do after sales support
  • Do extra work which is excluded in the job description and agreement free of charge

Applying the above strategy, I had gained 3 more projects and supported customers with my best. All of them were satisfied.

What is it like to be a freelancer?

Being a freelancer means you can say ‘no’ to jobs you don’t want. You might also get to work at home for specific projects. As long as your work is delivered on time, most clients won’t mind how and when you do it. Therefore, freelancing is a good option for people who don’t want to work in office hours. And to be a freelancer, you need sales skills, because you are going to sell the service. Communication skills are required since you have to communicate directly with the customer. Also, customer service skill is a must-have because if the client’s not happy, they will not pay. You need time management skills as well, because the more money you want to earn, the more work you have to do. Do not be afraid of work, because if afraid of any work, there will be nothing to do.

And as a freelancer, you will need to face up to and pass through some problem such as: getting your first few jobs can be hard as there are a lot of freelancers out there. Just being good at what you do isn’t enough – you need to have a network, marketing yourself and make contacts because no one will hire you if they don’t know you’re there! The workload can be unpredictable – sometimes you might be working all night to meet three deadlines in one week, while even the most successful freelancers have months where they get no work at all.

Should I try to work as a freelancer?

My answer is Yes. As a freelancer, you can get flexible working hours, excellent opportunity for improvement, learning through work and get higher income. Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of freelance jobs is that you can take a vacation whenever you want and of course if you want you can work on holidays while this is not the case with the office work.

Do you know even if you’re not a freelancer, you still can get all the benefits mentioned above if you work at TwentyCi Asia? Let’s take it as your first option for a new job application.

     Quan Phan           

 

 

Big Data and Applications in The 4th Revolution

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What is Big Data?

Big Data (BD) is a term referring to a huge and complex set of data which traditional data processing tools and applications cannot handle.

However, BD contains much worthy information. If it can be exploited properly, it will help a lot of business, scientific research, predicting outbreaks and even determining real-time traffic conditions. There is a reason why these data should be collected, organized, stored, searched and shared by a more special method than usual.

How is it applied in life?

As the concept of “no stranger in the field of technology”, some areas such as retail, marketing, education, governance, etc. has used BD most extensively. And retailing is the largest data mining industry nowadays.

Skills for Big Data

Big Data and BD Analysis request specific skills, throughout an organization or outside experts.

A lot of skills are related to data technology like Hadoop, Spark, NoSQL, the database of memory and analyzing software.

Other specific areas are on principles such as data science, data exploitation, parsing statistics and volume, data imagination, program general target, structure data, and algorithms.

However, the popularity of data analyzing project and the lack of human resources for the above skills have led to the challenges of finding senior experts.

Which case uses Big Data?

Big Data and BD Analysis can be applied in a wide range of businesses. In each specific case, the business use BD in a different way, below are some examples:

  • Analyzing clients: The companies will check data of clients to improve customers’ experience, improve conversation rate. Therefore, they can maintain the number of loyal customers.
  • Analyzing activities: Raising activity result and better-utilizing company’s assets are the goals of many companies. Analyzing BD could help businesses operate more efficiently and improve their performance.
  • Prevention of frauds: Data analysis can help the organizations definite the doubted activities as well as point out fraud activities, and then decrease risks
  • Price optimization: The companies can use the analysis of BD in price optimization for products and services, in order to increase revenue.

Trends for Big Data applications in 2018

BD is a collection of data that is often taken from many different sources and its capacity is out of the control of traditional applications and tools. Size of BD is more and more increase, and by 2012 it can range from several dozens of terabytes to multiple petabytes (1 petabyte = 1024 terabytes) for a dataset.

The consumption of a large amount is expected to be more popular with everyone by many experts. Besides that, they will expand and apply Big Data to solve everyday problems and meet the basic human’s demands. A little further, BD application can also support the organizations, government to predict unemployment rate, career trend in the future, in order to invest in those sectors, or cut off spending, stimulate economic growth.

In general, all of the data styles important with business, even small data or big data.

While small data is only effective for small businesses, in order to take the next step in development, BD is a great value for research, analysis of customer demands and development opportunities.

Feel free to send us any question in the comment below or send us an email. See you!

Anh Vu                         

References

Big Data Analytics in Life Sciences and Healthcare: An Overview, Knowledgent

8 BD Examples Showing The Great Value of Smart Analytics In Real Life At Restaurants, Bars and Casino, Datapine

Infographic: BD In Everyday Life, Innovation Enterprise Channel

Big Data Analytics, EY

Big Data Analytics – Data Life Cycle, Tutorialspoint

Big Data: Can it really change our lives? , Philips.com

What can BD do for you? , Europa.eu

 

 

Full stack with Vue.js & Laravel (p1) – Hello Vue.js!!!

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In recent years, there are so many front-end libraries and frameworks created like Angular.js, React, Knockout.js, Ember.js … They are very strong in front-end development. And Vue.js is also one of them. If you are a front-end developer, this post is for you!

Introduction

First, we are going to find out what Vue.js is

Vue.js is a progressive framework to build a Single Page Application (the web user interface). It uses MVVM (Model-View-View-Model) and is built on ES6 (ECMAScript2015). Therefore, you should know about ES6 before learning Vue.js, also make sure you have knowledge about HTML, JS, and CSS… They are not too hard to learn, trust me!

Why Vue.js?

  • Empowered HTML

This means that Vue.js has many similar characteristics with Angular and this can help to optimize HTML blocks handling with a usage of different components.

  • Detailed documentation

It has very circumstantial documentation which can fasten the learning curve for developers and save a lot of time to develop an app using only the basic knowledge of HTML and JavaScript.

  • Adaptability

It provides a rapid switching period from other frameworks to Vue.js because of the similarity with Angular and React in terms of design and architecture.

  • Awesome integration

It can be used for both building single-page applications and more difficult web interfaces of apps. The main thing is that smaller interactive parts can be easily integrated into the existing infrastructure with no negative effect on the entire system.

  • Large scaling

It can help to develop pretty large, reusable templates that can be made with no extra time allocated for that according to its simple structure.

  • Tiny size

It can be around 20KB, which keeps its speed, flexibility, also allows reaching much better performance in comparison to other frameworks.

Let’s get started with the first Vue program

To use Vue library, you just need to pass the URL in a script tag in HTML file:

<script src=”https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/vue”></script>

Our index.html file:

Then, we start to init js code to create Vue app:

Done, very simple, run index.html in a browser then we get the result:

 

Now we’re analyzing the above code:

var app = new Vue({

//

})

It means we initialize a Vue object (or Vue instance). And:

el : ‘#app’,

It’s the root element to make the container where Vue instance works.

Look at HTML section, we can see the div with id is app

Next,

data : {

‘Hello, I come from TwentyCI’

}

This is the data. The data and the DOM are now linked, and everything is now reactive. How do we know? Open your browser’s JavaScript console (right now, on this page) and set app.message to a different value. You should see the rendered example above update accordingly:

With the above code example, we’ve known a little basic of Vue.js

If you find this interesting, we will talk more and go deeper into the subject in the next post of Vue.js series. Feel free to send us any question in the comment section or send an email. See you!

Hoang Nguyen                            

Introduce to GraphQL

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INTRO:

Problem: Traditional RESTful web services are not so efficient in some use case:

  1. Sometimes we want to fetch part of an entity’s data. But web service only returns a complete set of data.
  2. Sometimes we want to fetch many related entities. But web service only accesses a single entity. So we have to make many round trips.
  3. If web service (endpoint, resources’ schema) changes, client code has to change as well.

And vice-versa, if the client requires a different set of data, we should change web service to support that, or at least to improve the outcome.

GraphQL solution:

  1. Allows clients to define the structure of the data required, and exactly the same structure of the data is returned from the server. Therefore it prevents the excessively large amounts of data from being returned.
  2. GraphQL is not dealing with dedicated resources. Instead, everything is regarded as a graph and connected.

You can combine different entities in one query and you are able to specify which attributes should be included in the response on every level.

  1. Single endpoint.

Client controls the query part – the query matches exactly the response. You do not need to read the documentation or run the request to know the response structure. Webservice and client can be developed parallel and independently at some extends.

About GraphQL: (more details)

  1. GraphQL is an open-source data query and manipulation language, and a runtime for fulfilling queries with existing data.
  2. Developed by Facebook.
  3. On 9th February 2018, the Schema Definition Language (SDL) was made part of the specification

DETAILS

1. Server

We need to install a GraphQL server to serve data “graphQL way”. It’s available for multiple languages, including Haskell, JavaScript, Python,[10] Ruby, Java, C#, Scala, Go, Elixir,[11] Erlang, PHP, R, and Clojure
  1. PHP: https://github.com/webonyx/graphql-php or https://github.com/leocavalcante/siler
  2. Nodejs: https://github.com/graphql/graphql-js/ or https://github.com/graphql/express-graphql (for working with express.js)
Schema:
  1. In order to describe the data that available to be queried, in the server above, we need to define our schema (types system).
  2. GraphQL has its own language to write Schemas: The Schema Definition Language (SDL). It’s language-agnostic, so you can use the same set of definition in GraphQL server written by PHP, Nodejs, Python…
  3. If you want to quickly build & test a schema with Nodejs, go to this in-browser GraphQL server playground
  4. Schema SDL example:
# hero is an object type
 type hero {
 ID: ID! # ! mean server will always return a non-null value for ID and name when fetching hero
 name: String! # ID and name are fields of scalar type
 appearsIn: [movie]! # these fields return a non-null list of movie objects
 }
 # movie is an object type
 type movie {
 ID: ID! # ID is a special scalar type
 name: String!
 character(OrderOfAppearance: Int): [hero] # id argument for nested fields
 }
 # one query object type is required for a schema, that describe what data can be fetched from client
 type queryRootType {
 # Get one hero item
 hero(id: ID!): hero # accept id argument
 # Get all hero items
 allHeros: [hero!]!
 #get movie
 movie(id: ID!): [movie]
 }
 # one mutation object type, optional for a schema, that describes what data can be sent from the client
 type mutationRootType {
 addHero(id: ID!, name: String!, appearsIn: movie): hero! # this's the required field
 removeHero(id: ID!): hero!
 }
 # only one schema definition for each schema
 schema {
 query: queryRootType
 mutation: mutationRootType
 }
In the server above, write “resolver” to map schema types to actually code that gets data.

Please see PHP tutorial here

Recommendation:
  1. GraphQL is typically served over HTTP via a single endpoint which expresses the full set of capabilities of the service
  2. Return JSON (with gzip)

2. Clients:

There are many clients writing in many languages.

Below is some examples using curl, in order to show the most basic form of GraphQL query:

  1. Search a single hero by id:
     curl <your-endpoint> -d '{"query": "query { hero(id: 1) }" }'
  2. Fetch all hero names:
     curl <your-endpoint> -d '{"query": "query { allHeros{name} }" }'
  3. There are special types “__schema” and “__type” that enable introspection of the schema:
     curl <your-endpoint> -d '{"query": "query { __schema{types{kind, name, possibleTypes{name}}}}" }'

 curl <your-endpoint> -d '{"query": "query { __type(name:\"hero\"){name, fields{name} } }" }
  4. Allows send variables in “variables” field of our payload:
     curl <your-endpoint> -d '{"query": "query($id:ID) { hero(id: $id) }", "variables": {"id":1} }'

Check out our demo here

Comment down below if you have any question or contact us via email for free consultation. Don’t forget to share & subscribe to our blog!

Chuong Nguyen           

References

https://medium.com/codingthesmartway-com-blog/rest-vs-graphql-418eac2e3083

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GraphQL

https://graphql.org

https://blog.apollographql.com/three-ways-to-represent-your-graphql-schema-a41f4175100d

https://facebook.github.io/graphql/draft/

 

 

Top 5 predictions for the future of Omnichannel Marketing

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In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, Paul Hickey, our Director of Digital Solutions, recently shared his view on the upcoming opportunities and challenges to Omnichannel marketing that we can expect to see over the next 12-18 months. Read on for the top five to watch

1. GDPR for more valuable consumer-brand relationships

With The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force soon, the way people use consumer data in the future will change, as well as consumer relationships with brands themselves. Millennials, in particular, are more likely to opt out of communications, which will drive down the size of target audiences that brands are permitted to contact. However, what this also means is that people will be receiving fewer one to one communications. So, if they opt into a communication they will be more receptive and more valuable to brands than before. As the control of the data reigns gets held more firmly by the consumer, brands are going to have to be more conscious than ever about value transfer – making sure it’s worth the customer’s while to view the ad or read the email.

2. Short-form video to soar
The video is going to continue to grow at a pace, but increasingly it’s going to be the short-form video that advertisers will focus on. Consumers don’t want to spend more than 15/20 seconds on a brand video.

3.Continued growth in E-commerce

E-commerce will explode in the coming two years. With smartphones having overtaken laptops as our means to go online, we can shop whenever and wherever we want – and we are doing so in droves. The irrepressible rise of Amazon will undoubtedly also have an impact as we can pretty much buy anything from one place now. Plus, there are more services set up to help us receive or return our products more quickly and easily, so online purchases are less risky.

4.Contextual Omnichannel programmes for targeted marketing

Omnichannel communications will bring ‘context’ into play to make them more effective. Marketers already look to answer questions like ‘who, what and when’ when they target their campaigns. However, as more factual data becomes available, they can increasingly understand the ‘why’ behind consumer behavior and tailor communications around this. For instance, understanding why a customer buys, e.g. paint, can open up opportunities for retailers to form closer relationships with customers and satisfy multiple needs. Homemovers, for instance, are likely to require more than just paint when they move in, as will someone about to have their first baby – but their desires will also be different and directly linked to their specific contextual life event. So, by understanding the context behind someone buying paint, a savvy retailer will understand the needs of the individual customer and can help them solve them with targeted promotional offers. This is value transfer in action in the digital age!

5.Actionable data at the heart of everything 

Data will increasingly be seen as at the heart of Omnichannel campaigns. Most brands involved in Omnichannel operations have understood this, but that doesn’t mean that they have all been using their data properly. However, every year, marketers get more data savvy, and tools to understand data and make it actionable have become easier for us.

Click here to read the full article published in Social Media Portal. 

To find out more about how TwentyCi can help you prepare for some of these challenges and opportunities, please leave a comment below or email contact@twentyci.asia

Rhiana Duckett                           

Opportunities in PropTech – Is this a robust area?

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PropTech (Property Technology) refers to a small part of digital transformation in Real Estate industry, using technology innovations to tackle challenges in the Property sector (Dearsley, 2017). PropTech comprises of companies/startups offering IT solutions or innovative business model to make Real Estate transactions more fruitful and efficient (Lecamus, 2017).

For the new business model, PropTech organizations target the traditional inefficiency and obsolete procedures of the Real Estate area. For innovative products, PropTech organizations develop innovative hardware, software, as well as other core technologies in building fittings, fixtures, materials, and systems. (Maarbani, 2017)

PropTech products fall into 4 main categories:

  • Urban Planning: Companies in this vertical focus on various aspects of urban, rural and community planning, including improving processes related to the land release, planning approvals, protection, and use of the environment, and the enhanced design of the urban environment.

Example:

  • Satellite technology
  • Mapping platforms
  • Beacon technology
  • Design & Construction: Including tools and processes used for the design, development, and construction of residential, commercial and industrial Real Estate projects.

Example:

  • Project and cost management tools
  • Enhanced architecture and design software
  • Smart building platforms and artificial intelligence
  • Search, Sales & Acquisition: Including tools, processes and business models for searching, marketing and acquiring new and existing residential, commercial and industrial Real Estate.

Example:

  • CRM and lead management solutions
  • Online brokerage, sales, and auctions
  • Buyer search and discovery tools including listing portals
  • Leasing & Management: Including tools, processes and business models used for the leasing and management of residential, commercial or industrial Real Estate, from single properties through to solutions designed for complex property portfolios.

Example:

  • Lease and revenue management software
  • Transaction management software

Above all, Data & Analytics companies identify, collate and analyze relevant big data to enhance operational efficiency, inform decision making and improve the experience of participants (Maarbani, 2017).

According to a survey of KPMG in 2017, the most influential PropTech innovations over the next 5 years are Big Data Analytics, IoT and AI. However, those technologies are immature and will have more substantial impacts over longer 5, 10 or 15-year period. Though now this is an early stage, companies should consider a gradual transformation plan to avoid being left behind with obsolete systems. This is a great opportunity for PropTech startups and innovative ideas to be invested and implemented before the saturation.

(KPMG, 2017)

Over the last 5 years, TwentyCi Asia has successfully developed PropTech products for a number of clients with high-standard delivery quality and high customer satisfaction.

CoVESTA is a fractional property investment platform that provides the opportunity to invest in any available property, anywhere in Australia. Their mission is to help ordinary Australians to get into property investment and build their future wealth.

TwentyEA comprises of experts in the UK home mover market with a team made up of property industry veterans, data scientists and start up technologists. They are well known for quarterly Property & Home mover Report which produces a comprehensive review of the UK property market.

View My Chain sheds new light on the complex home-buying process, allowing users to track every step from Sold Subject to Contract (SSTC) to exchange. Clear, honest, up-to-the-minute information on what’s happening in the chain empowers proactive agents to complete faster than ever before.

Romans is in top 5 largest property groups in the UK. With a full range of property services, Romans helps everyone interested in buying or selling, renting or letting, town planning or mortgage advice.

Comment down below if you have any question or contact us via email for free consultation. Don’t forget to share & subscribe to our blog! See you in the next post!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Olivia Dang                           

References

Dearsley, J., 2017. WHAT IS PROPTECH?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.jamesdearsley.co.uk/what-is-proptech/
[Accessed 24 10 2018].

KPMG, 2017. Proptech – Bridging the gap, UK: KPMG LLP.

Lecamus, V., 2017. PropTech: What is it and how to address the new wave of real estate startups?. [Online]
Available at: https://medium.com/@vincentlecamus/proptech-what-is-it-and-how-to-address-the-new-wave-of-real-estate-startups-ae9bb52fb128
[Accessed 24 10 2018].

Maarbani, S., 2017. Real Estate Technology – Threat or Opportunity?, s.l.: KPMG.

 

 

What makes a good ODC?

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The Offshore Development Centre (ODC) is designed to act as an extension of the client organization, seamlessly offering the flexible capacity to meet variable demand. As the ODC model has matured throughout the industry, it’s become clear that successful organizations not only need to deliver tailored solutions in a repeatable manner but also need to adapt to their clients’ culture and philosophy and have a set of good practices to build on and continuously lead clients in areas of improvement.

ODCs should create a virtuous circle of delivery, improvement, mutual gain, and trust. Furthermore, there is an innate belief and expectation that members of an ODC will be thinking and operating as if they were an official part of the client’s organization. This document highlights the characteristics of a “GOOD” ODC and also provides some guidelines and behaviors for how to achieve these characteristics.

This document covers the key activities and behaviors associated with operating as an ODC: acting and thinking as part of the client’s organization, driving continuous improvement and refinement of process and tasks to align with TwentyCi business strategies of doing more with less.  At the same time, our delivery methodology needs to fit the client’s culture, be applied consistently and have the same rigor and management of scope, timeliness, and quality as our project-based deliveries. This document is not a substitute for the quality management practices and templates also avoid going into details on any specific process.  The purpose is to complement the existing processes and practices, highlighting key steps and good behaviors.

 

Target / What good looks like

Guidelines / Behaviours

  • Agreed working processes are applied consistently throughout the ODC.
  • The ODC maintains the correct balance of resource seniority. Succession plans are proactively maintained.
  • Comprehensive reporting and KPIs are agreed and tracked to provide an objective measure of performance (whether requested by the client or not).
  • There are clear roles and responsibilities identified with the client and among project team
  • The correct balance of time, quality and cost are maintained.
  • Productivity is managed.
  • A log of discrete improvements to ODC working practices is established and maintained.
  • Think and act as the client, put yourself in their shoes.
  • Avoid inconsistency, as it reduces the client’s confidence in company capability.
  • Awareness of risks, issues, and KPIs to provide a client-orientated context for decisions.  Consider the client’s point of view.
  • Seek to improve, offer ideas and suggestions. Clients are welcome for improvable positive ideas.
  • ODC members are trusted to communicate and work effectively, directly with key customer stakeholders.
  • The ODCs are enthusiastic and focused on delivery, and consider the long-term maintainability and performance of solutions they construct.
  • The whole ODC operates in a professional manner, aware of clients’ perception at all times, especially where clients are physically present.
  • If in doubt, the ODC team take ownership for the resolution of issues.
  • Proactively raise risks and mitigation recommendations to the client.

 

Comment down below if you have any question or contact us via email for free consultation. Don’t forget to share & subscribe to our blog! See you in the next post!

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