Why Your Business Needs to Conduct Research

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When you are trying to run a successful business, you need to think about all avenues of the company. And this means you have to consider the key techniques that will help you when it comes to success as a company. There are a lot of ideas that play a role in helping you to improve your company, and this is something that you need to focus on.

There are a lot of things every new business needs to succeed, and there are a lot of ideas and elements that you have to think about when it helps you achieve this. You need to try to think about some of the best ways of helping your business conduct the right research to help it grow, and these are some of the reasons why that matters so much.

You Need a Grasp of Data

Data is one of the key aspects of running a modern company, and this is something you should be looking to make the best of. There is so much data and information that modern businesses are needing to deal with these days, and you need to come up with some of the key ideas that will help you improve upon this. You have to make sure you understand the data your company is dealing with, as this can have a huge impact on the way your company can be more successful.

It’s Important to Know Your Market

Knowing your market is one of the best ways of being able to take things that further and be successful as a company. You have to conduct market research in order to get a better idea of your audience and the people you should be trying to focus on. Now, there are a lot of factors that play a role in helping you to know your market and understand your business more effectively. And research is one of the most pertinent ways of being able to achieve this moving forward.

Have a Plan for the Future

You need your company to have a plan for the future, and carrying out statistical analysis of data, as well as things like meta-analysis can help you when it comes to improving the business and making plans for the future. You need to know about the best ways of being able to achieve success and have a plan for the future, which is something that research and analysis can help with, as it gives you the information and data you need to plan for the future.

You have so many ideas that you can use when it comes to improving your business and planning for the future. There are a lot of ideas that you can use to help you when it comes to making the most of this, and there are a lot of elements that play a role in this. Trying to focus on conducting research and understanding data is really important when it comes to taking things to the next level.

6 Ways to Save on Maintenance Costs for Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Maintenance Costs|6 Ways to Save on Maintenance Costs for Your BusinessThough you may feel like you have no extra room in your budget, there are almost always ways to save business costs without cutting corners and compromising on quality or safety. One of the often overlooked areas is maintenance. Here are six tips for saving on maintenance costs for your business.

Buy wholesale maintenance products

Certain maintenance products are non-negotiable. Though they may not seem like a huge expense, if you’re buying them in small quantities as you need them, you’re almost certainly spending more than you need to.

Look for cleaning equipment suppliers that offer wholesale cleaning products. While it may seem like you’re buying more than you need, many cleaning products don’t expire, or if they do, have extremely long expiry dates.

Act preventatively rather than responsively

While it may be tempting to avoid making repairs on things before they’re needed, giving your facilities and technology attention only when a problem arises significantly increases the costs. By developing a solid understanding of your maintenance needs, and knowing when you should be conducting servicing, you’ll be able to save extensively on materials, supplies, and labor.

Conduct assessment on the current schedule

To accurately determine the areas you may be able to make changes in, you need to develop a thorough understanding of your current maintenance schedule and procedures. If you don’t currently have the right reporting in place to obtain this information, arrange a meeting with the relevant stakeholders and put this infrastructure into place.

Proper reporting produces the right data, and data are essential for determining where you’re wasting resources, as well as the areas that require more attention.

Invest in the proper equipment and technology

If your equipment and technology are outdated, chances are you’re not running as efficiently as you could be. You’re also likely to be spending more on maintenance than you would be with newer technology. Replacing your old infrastructure might seem like a hefty upfront cost, but by calculating the costs of maintenance over time, you may find that replacement is the more affordable route in the long run.

Improve efficiency through training

While having efficient technology is important, it’s only part of the equation. To save on maintenance, you need highly trained staff that know exactly what they’re doing, and how to get the job done efficiently. If you haven’t already, make sure you set up regular training sessions for staff. In addition to formal training, ensuring communication is effective is also important.

Improve written communication through email and memos between maintenance staff and managers, and hold regular meetings to discuss areas that need improvement to create actionable strategies to meet those goals.

Make warranty claims

Most equipment comes with a warranty option for a small additional fee, or at no additional cost. However, consumers and corporations rarely take the steps to make a warranty claim when something goes wrong.

While the amount recuperated by a warranty claim may seem insignificant, multiple warranty claims over time add up to a substantial sum. When purchasing a new product or equipment, make sure you inquire about warranty terms and keep this information on file so that it is readily accessible in the case you need to use it.

4 Steps to Build a Strong Board of Directors

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Board of Directors|4 Steps to Build a Strong Board of DirectorsBuilding a board of directors can be difficult, but getting it right is essential. A well-run board of directors will help you achieve your strategic goals and ensure the long-term success of your business, whereas a disorganized and inefficient board will stunt business growth and harm profits and revenue.

Here are four steps you should take to build a strong board of directors:

Step 1: Choose board members wisely

You need to elect board members who have skills and expertise that align with your strategic business goals. Ideally, board members should have leadership and management experience in a field that is related to your business. They should also show a commitment to your organization and have the time and energy to fulfill their board responsibilities.

Step 2: Elect an experienced chairman

The chairman will preside over board meetings and facilitate good board governance and leadership. They will take on a senior and crucial role in your board of directors, and you must choose the right person for the job.

Research the characteristics of a strong chairman and elect someone who has several years of experience in a similar role. You need someone that can advise you on the best board governance practices, after all. Remember that the chairman you elect will have a significant impact on the overall effectiveness of your board of directors, so don’t make the decision lightly.

Step 3: Select the right number of directors

You must consider how many board members you will need for your company. According to advice on thebalancesmb.com, “five to seven members is plenty for small organizations. Larger, more complex organizations might want to select between 9 and 11 members at the minimum.” Various studies have found that organizations with a smaller board size tend to perform better than those with an excessively large board of directors.

Keep in mind that not every organization has a board of directors, and you might not need a formal board. An advisory board may be a more suitable option, especially if your company is small or a start-up. You can then transition to a formal board of directors when your company grows and becomes more complex.

Step 4: Offer effective board orientation

When a new member joins your board of directors, you must provide them with an effective orientation to prepare them for the role. Make sure this covers the roles and responsibilities of board members, your company background, and your strategic objectives.

An effective orientation process will make new board members feel welcomed and keep them engaged in their work. It will also provide them will the tools and knowledge that they can hit the ground running and add value to your organization.

Summary

Assembling a board of directors that will add value to your business can be a difficult and daunting task. However, you must get it right, as your board will play a vital role in business growth and development.

Follow these steps to create and maintain a strong board of directors that will drive profits and help you achieve your long-term objectives.

5 Things You Need to Know Before Signing a Commercial Real Estate Lease

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Commercial Real Estate Lease|5 Things You Need to Know Before Signing a Commercial Real Estate LeaseA commercial real estate lease involves an agreement that enables businesses to rent commercial property from a landlord. Commercial leases can be full-term, net, and modified gross leases. Its identification, negotiation, and signing process is long, which is why you should know the steps involved so you can make informed decisions.

A commercial real estate lease is legally binding. This is why you should understand the lease contract as it defines your rights and responsibilities and those of the landlord. Below are things you need to know before signing a commercial real estate lease.

1. Research the area

When looking for a commercial property, researching the area will help you understand the prospective clientele. This is because location is everything for a business to thrive. Bearing in mind that once you sign the lease it becomes legally binding, and it may take at least two or more years before the lease term ends, ensure that the potential location is ideal for your business.

Consider seeking professional help for the ideal business location from industry experts like Jeff Tabor Group. They can also advise you on the benefits, differences, and value of different buildings within your preferred location, helping you make an informed decision.

2. Know the zoning laws

Zoning laws direct the development of real estate and may affect the operation of a business. Depending on your kind of business, research the municipality laws to ensure that you can run within that locality without facing any legal problems. Ensuring that your lease agreement aligns with standard zoning laws of the area will allow your business to operate without interference from local authorities.

3. What do you know about the landlord and the building owner?

At times, the landlord may not be the building owner. Before signing the lease agreement, ensure that you know who the landlord and the building owner are, their financial capacity and if they make good on their payments. This will help you protect your business should anything go wrong. For example, if a landlord doesn’t make payments to the building owner’s account, you may end up being evicted even if you made your payments on time. Conduct thorough research to ascertain that you’re signing the right deal for your business.

4. Find out about the nuisance laws

Once your business opens its doors, you want it to run without limitations. Before signing a lease, familiarize yourself with nuisance laws and check any smell, noise, and equipment clauses and negotiate where necessary. Look out for any environmental regulations governing the building you intend to lease to ensure they aren’t against your business.

5. Don’t forget the lease statutes

When reviewing your lease document, pay attention to the rent structure to determine your monthly payments, by what your rent will increase and after how long, so you can look at your budget and decide whether you’ll stay. Don’t forget about the lease term. Consider how a short- or long-term lease will affect your business. Find out about expenses like property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, repairs, modifications, security, and more.

Endnote

Commercial real estate leasing can be tricky, especially when you lack the proper knowledge. Consider the above tips and advice from industry experts before signing a lease agreement.

Augmented Reality based Indoor Navigation: Available Tracking Systems and Challenges

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Reality Based Indoor Navigation| Augmented Reality based Indoor Navigation: Available Tracking Systems and ChallengesEven after a substantial penetration of digital platforms into our lives, the need to move around physical spaces hasn’t been ruled out yet. In most cases, having an address, name and set of coordinates can make this task straightforward via using GPS on your phone. But there are some limitations to GPS services as it doesn’t provide accurate information in the case of indoor navigation. Various indoor applications that require step-by-step guidance with quick & accurate results; led businesses to incorporate augmented reality into indoor mapping to reach the threshold level of navigation accuracy.

Businesses are actively leveraging the advantages of AR in indoor navigation systems; the global indoor positioning & navigation market is projected to reach $23.6 billion by 2023.

Augmented Reality Redefines Indoor Positioning

Augmented reality in indoor positioning is a next-generation solution. The possibility is that in the next few years, the navigation systems that utilize AR would become industry standards for many fields and eventually be beneficial to both users and companies.

Augmented reality (AR) provides an interactive experience by adding imaginary objects to the real world through computer-generated perceptual information. The release of Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore has significantly improved the navigation apps and is regarded as the two powerful mobile AR platforms designed for AR applications to be built on. These platforms provide a variety of tools for understanding the objects in the real world.

ARKit combines device motion tracking, camera capture, advanced scene processing, and display conveniences to build AR apps. It allows developers to build immersive apps on the iPhone or iPad by analyzing the scene captured by the iPhone’s camera and fused with motion sensors to track the location of the object in 3D space.

ARCore combines motion tracking, environmental understanding, and light estimation. Motion tracking lets the phone understand and track the position relative to the world by observing feature points taken through the android phone’s camera and sensor data. Environmental understanding allows the devices to detect the horizontal and vertical surfaces of the floor.

Let’s get familiar with available Tracking Systems

GPS, which is considered as the global tracking system for the outdoors, but this also fails when it comes to finding location indoors. To overcome this, leveraging AR into indoor positioning solutions aids ease of navigation and enhances the user experiences. The accuracy and functionality of AR for indoor navigation provide tangible benefits for organizations and end-users (such as customers in a store, workers in a warehouse, visitors in a building).

Let’s have a look at the existing tracking systems for indoor positioning.

1. Visual recognition and SLAM systems (vSLAM)

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is a computational method for obtaining the 3D structure of an unknown environment that uses the data captured by the external sensors to self-locate and build a map of the surrounding environment simultaneously. SLAM algorithm works by mapping out surroundings, extracting features, keeping a track of the user’s location, and based on this info, constantly updates the navigation map.

Visual SLAM refers to the complex process of calculating the location and mapping of a device to its environment, along with taking visual inputs from the camera. It works with 3D vision cameras and finds application in camera pose estimation in AR systems like head-mounted displays, indoor navigation & positioning apps.

The whole process is carried out in real-time and is considered more flexible than other tracking systems like LIDAR and UWB as it doesn’t deal with any external sensors but only with a camera. vSLAM technology is more accurate (tracks up to millimeters) in smaller areas than it is in wide-open areas.

2. Ultra-wideband (UWB)

Ultra-wideband (UWB) positioning systems are considered as one of the most effective options in advanced indoor positioning where a higher degree of precision is required. To monitor AR-based indoor positioning, it’s necessary to estimate the line-of-sight vector of observers using a UWB transceiver that estimates the distance to another UWB transceiver via time of arrival (TDoA). The process is carried out in real-time and can transmit a large amount of data at low power and low cost and can precisely locate the object via Time-of-flight (ToF) up to 200 meters.

One of the use cases where UWB promises to be the most effective tracking system is warehouse management where hundreds of thousands of items are kept and need to be located in the shortest time possible on the customer’s order. In the case of pinpoint accuracy, the UWB positioning system is considered the best option available.

However, this level of accuracy always comes at a cost. The tags used in UWB are much more expensive than tags used in other tracking systems, and hence, makes it a very expensive system to have. In such cases, businesses need to consider if they require pinpoint accuracy to locate the object, or more general information can do their work.

3. Bluetooth Beacons

Beacons are low-energy Bluetooth transmitters that are used to communicate with Bluetooth-enabled smartphones, tablets, etc when they are in close proximity to the beacons. Beacons can be mounted on the wall or ceiling all over the location at a distance of 10-20 meters. After the installation, Bluetooth beacons start transmitting the signals at regular intervals of time and can see the device once it’s in the range which may vary from 20m to 300 m.

Bluetooth Beacons have many applications in the business world like retailers use beacons to trigger location-based features on customer’s mobiles including coupon, store map, sale, discount, etc when they pass by their favourite store. For smaller range applications like shops, malls, airports, buildings, using beacons might be one of the best options to enhance user experiences. Despite these benefits, beacons are considered expensive & obsolete and are now being replaced by visual markers due to their greater accuracy.

4. Virtual Positioning Systems (VPS)

VPS is the amalgam of artificial intelligence, image processing & augmented reality technology that allows the devices to virtually place the surroundings in a map. Virtual positioning systems work well over large areas and fall short when trying to determine position within buildings. It creates a 3D environment by comparing multiple images of the surroundings taken by the phone’s camera to recreate the position relative to the environment using the GPS triangulation technique.

For example, Google uses Street View data to locate the user’s position by taking multiple images and stitching them together into a single 360-degree image, using buildings as reference points. Apple is using ARWoldMap in many outdoor applications to determine the user’s location.

Challenges in Indoor Positioning Systems

The use of AR in Indoor positioning offers so much, but there are still some challenges that need to be addressed during or before the implementation.

  • Indoor navigation is impossible without a proper map. Building an accurate map is a critical process as it requires the correct coordinate system in the 3D form then aligning it with the geographical coordinates using images taken from various sources. While building maps are critical, maintaining the map and always keeping them up to date become mandatory to provide the best possible user experience.
  • Drawing the route in the real-world using AR is also a big challenge that needs to be addressed. Visual markers are placed to draw coordinates at specific points to analyze the surroundings and are made sure that it matches to the real-world. AR effect is always placed on the top of any image which creates an illusion of placing digital content in the real world while rendering virtual places.
  • Having an uninterrupted session becomes another hurdle to get the accurate result in locating the object. To get this result, it’s necessary for users to keep their camera active from initial marking to the final destination. This limitation can be addressed by using Wi-Fi RTT (Round-trip-time) which can provide an accuracy level up to 1 to 2 meters. It measures the time for the signals to reach the user’s device and be received back using 3 or more wi-fi routers.

The Future of AR Indoor Navigation

As more companies explore the potential of AR in navigation systems, it would continue to prove a game-changer in indoor navigation. In the coming years, the use of visual markers will increase due to their ability to bring down the accuracy threshold down to within millimeters.

Wi-Fi RTT-based positioning will see greater adoption and proliferation due to greater precision than WPS (Wi-Fi protected systems). The time taken for sending signals to users and receiving them back will reduce and hence, will increase the accuracy more. The performance of mobile devices will also advance, which will support more complex algorithms. We might see other hybrid solutions like combining visual markers and visual positioning systems which will improve the quality of tracking in near future.

Augmented reality offers a potential solution to improve indoor positioning accuracy and is continually evolving over the years. Augmented reality indoor navigation technology is set to experience significant growth in the coming years, and, as a result, will be firmly on the radar as an investment theme in most companies regardless of their industry type.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Kajal MishraKajal Mishra is a Senior Marketing Executive at PathPartner Technology. She provides her contribution in creating content & handling inbound & outbound marketing for Multimedia & AI domain. Exploring newer technologies and writing around that is something that excites her the most.