Circular Button with Icon and Text in Android

Rounded android button can be used for many purposes to make awesome application. We can see many applications that have used circle button or rounded corner. In this tutorial, I am going to show how to make circular android button and to add icons/images and text in the same button.

To make circular button in android app, you don’t need any java code, this can be done by using only XML. Rounded button can also be created by using java code but it is time consuming and need to have advance knowledge of java programming.

Here you will learn to make circular/rounded corner button using XML only.

Android Example: How to Create Circular Button with Icon and Text in Android

First you have to create a new XML file in drawable folder to make rounded button. In this file I have made a rectangle and gave border radius to make circular and fill the background and border color. Following is the complete content of XML drawable file.

res/drawable/ circle.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<shape xmlns:android="http://pkrkinth.android.com/apk/res/android"

android:shape="rectangle">

<corners android:radius="1000dp" />

<solid android:color="#41ba7a" />

<stroke

android:width="2dip"

android:color="#03ae3c" />

<padding

android:bottom="4dp"

android:left="4dp"

android:right="4dp"

android:top="4dp" />

</shape>

XML Layout File

This is the XML layout file where I have added different buttons with image and text together and set background to the drawable file that we have created above. Following is the complete content of XML layout file.

res/layout/circular_button_with_image_and_text.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://pkrkinth.android.com/apk/res/android"

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="match_parent"

android:gravity="center_horizontal"

android:orientation="vertical"

android:padding="16dp">

<LinearLayout

android:layout_width="wrap_content"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:orientation="horizontal">

<Button

android:layout_width="100dp"

android:layout_height="100dp"

android:background="@drawable/circle"

android:drawableTop="@android:drawable/ic_dialog_email"

android:paddingTop="20dp"

android:text="Contact"

android:textColor="#fff" />

<Button

android:layout_width="100dp"

android:layout_height="100dp"

android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"

android:background="@drawable/circle"

android:drawableTop="@android:drawable/ic_dialog_map"

android:paddingTop="20dp"

android:text="Map"

android:textColor="#fff" />

<Button

android:layout_width="100dp"

android:layout_height="100dp"

android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"

android:background="@drawable/circle"

android:drawableTop="@android:drawable/ic_dialog_info"

android:paddingTop="20dp"

android:text="Info"

android:textColor="#fff" />

</LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Java Activity File

Following is the default code of java activity file.

src/ RoundedAndroidButton.java

package pkrkinth.com.androidxmluserinterfacetutorial;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;

public class RoundedAndroidButton extends AppCompatActivity {

@Override

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.circular_button_with_image_and_text);

}

}

Strings.xml File

res/values/strings.xml

<resources>

<string name="app_name">Circular Button with Icon and Text</string>

</resources>

Now, run your Circular Button with Icon and Text in Android application which will look like above screenshot. If you have any question please mention in the comment box below. 

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"Geckodriver" execution issue while running Java application from Selenium Automation

You can get this issue most often while running Java application using Selenium IDE for automation testing. The issue look like this:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalStateException: The path to the driver executable must be set by the webdriver.gecko.driver system property; for more information, see https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver. The latest version can be downloaded from https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/releases

The Selenium client bindings will try to locate the geckodriver executable from the system PATH. You will need to add the directory containing the executable to the system path.

• On Unix systems you can do the following to append it to your system’s search path, if you’re using a bash-compatible shell:

  export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/geckodriver

• On Windows you need to update the Path system variable to add the full directory path to the executable. The principle is the same as on Unix.

All below configuration for launching latest firefox using any programming language binding is applicable for Selenium2 to enable Marionette explicitly. With Selenium 3.0 and later, you shouldn't need to do anything to use Marionette, as it's enabled by default.

To use Marionette in your tests you will need to update your desired capabilities to use it.

Java :

As exception is clearly saying you need to download latest geckodriver.exe from here and set downloaded geckodriver.exe path where it's exists in your computer as system property with with variable webdriver.gecko.driver before initiating marionette driver and launching firefox as below :-

//if you didn't update the Path system variable to add the full directory path to the executable as above mentioned then doing this directly through code
System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver", "path/to/geckodriver.exe");

//Now you can Initialize marionette driver to launch firefox
DesiredCapabilities capabilities = DesiredCapabilities.firefox();
capabilities.setCapability("marionette", true);
WebDriver driver = new MarionetteDriver(capabilities); 

And for Selenium3 use as :-

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

Note : Just like the other drivers available to Selenium from other browser vendors, Mozilla has released now an executable that will run alongside the browser. Follow this for more details.

You can download latest geckodriver executable to support latest firefox from here

There is way to solve this issue

You are using latest version of Selenium WebDriver i.e. Selenium 3.x, this version of webdriver doesn't support direct firefox launch. You have to set the SystemProperty for webdriver.gecko.driver.

Replace the Code:-

WebDriver driver;
driver =new FirefoxDriver();

With This code:-

WebDriver driver;
System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver", "<Path to your WebDriver>");
driver =new FirefoxDriver();

You can get the information about latest changes here

You can download the latest Gecko driver from here

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Marketing Plan Template

Marketing Plan Template

[Company Name] Marketing Plan

20XX

Introduction/Goals

Start your plan off with a brief introduction including background on your company and your overall marketing goals for the year. In the introduction, you can highlight areas of your plan that you think are the most important or discuss particular opportunities, threats or market trends that will be significant in the coming year.

Competitive Analysis

Here you can state your overall observations of the competitive landscape and particular opportunities or threats within this landscape. Also mention any trends you have noticed competitors adopting. List out your top competitors.

SWOT Analysis

List out the specific strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within your market. If there are areas that are particularly notable that will be a prime area of focus, expand upon those areas in this introduction. You may also want to list out any environmental challenges as a separate list.

Strengths (Internal advantages, things the business is already doing well, the company’s competitive edge):

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Weaknesses (Internal inefficiencies, areas where the business is falling behind the competition or is lacking resources):

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Opportunities (External areas within the marketplace where the competition is weak and your business has potential. Use the PEST (political, economical, social, technological) analysis to cover all the bases):

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Threats (External areas where the competition is strong or there is a market trend with the potential to harm your business. Again, use the PEST analysis here):

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Target Market

In this section, give a synopsis of your buyer personas. You should discuss why these are your target buyers as well as the types of buyers you want to avoid. Remember, you can have as many buyer personas as you feel necessary.

Buying Cycle

In this section, you will discuss the buying cycle of your customers. Through your research, you should have discovered how, when, where and why they buy. This is crucial to your strategy, which you will also need to explain here. Discuss what your strategy is for converting leads through each phase of the buying cycle - awareness, consideration, decision (as coined by HubSpot).

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

This section is pretty straightforward. Explain your unique selling proposition and how you differ from the competition. You can also discuss how you will incorporate this USP into all your messaging to ensure it is communicated through your brand to the end buyer.

Brand

Discuss your brand and how it will be communicated as well as protected. Any changes or strategies you are hoping to develop around your brand should be included here. You should discuss how your brand is currently perceived in the marketplace and how you plan to ensure the brand stays strong, as well as how you plan to increase its visibility and recognition or repair a brand that has an image issue. You can also discuss PR here and how you plan to respond to any negative publicity or events.

Website

In this section, discuss how you plan to improve/optimize your current site or explain your plans for a new site, if that is your intention. You should mention why your website is so important and the role it plays in attracting and converting buyers. If you will need additional resources for your web plans list that here. You should also add how you will measure your efforts and what success will look like by listing goals around number of new web visitors, visitor to lead conversion rate, number of web leads, lead to sales conversion rate and number of website sales.

Content Marketing

In this section, discuss the important role content will play in your strategy. Explain how it will be used, who will be creating it and why it will improve search and attract buyers. You should discuss any changes from the previous year, list KPIs, explain how content will be distributed and outline your rough goals for the plan. If you will need additional resources, list those as well.

Social Media Marketing

Explain here how you will be either launching or maintaining social media channels. Include the strategies – how you will keep a consistent presence, build relationships, gain followers, get likes, etc. – and goals for each social media account, plus how you will keep your brand consistent across all accounts. Explain the role social will play in distributing content and bringing buyers back to the website.

Email Marketing

In this section, explain the role your email marketing will play. Explain your strategy, goals and KPIs along with any system changes (i.e. if you are using Exact Target but planning to switch to MailChimp). Explain the importance of measurement and testing in email marketing. You may also want to discuss how you will use personalization and segmentation and how email will be incorporated into your overall campaigns.

SEO

In this section, discuss your SEO strategy and its importance to your overall goals. You can discuss how it will be incorporated throughout your website, social media and content marketing efforts.

Measurement and KPIs

For inbound marketers, measurement is hugely important. Here, list out how and when you plan to measure your efforts, the KPIs you will use and what success ultimately looks like. Success should tie back to the business objectives and marketing goals.

Marketing Strategy and Tactics

In this section list your overarching strategy. Everything you have just written out is part of your strategy, but here you will recap it all in a brief synopsis. This is also a good place to explain how marketing and sales will work together. If you are focusing on certain tactics as a part of that strategy, list those here as well and explain each one briefly. It is often helpful to have 4 or 5 main tactical initiatives to focus on, which will help you reach the goals you listed out in the beginning of this plan. Examples: re-vamp the blog, build a microsite and improve SEO.

Download document - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4nT5aTUneiISl9VdTJWbTN3YWs

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Design a Salary Slip for Employees

Every year there is appraisal season in all companies and employees are rewarded for their hard work and good performances. Some people switch jobs for change in work profiles and higher pay packages. In either case you must pay attention to the compensation structure being offered. A higher package does not always mean that employee take-home salary will increase by the same margin.
If your current or prospective employer lets you decide the compensation structure, here are some tricks to make you pay more tax-efficient. Pay less taxes and take home more salary.

Salary Structure includes various components like:

1. Fixed Salary: This includes basic, DA, HRA, conveyance allowances, city compensatory allowance, special allowances etc.
2. Variable Salary: It includes performance based incentive, sale based incentive and profit based bonus.
3. Reimbursements: It includes reimbursement of conveyance, medical, telephone, etc.
4. Contributions: It includes the benefits offered by the company like Provident Fund, ESI, Statutory Bonus, etc.

Salary Structure on the basis of level of employee

1. Salary structure for a junior-level employee: Employees at the junior levels need a higher take-home salary. They try to add more fixed allowances in the salary structures such as food coupons, conveyance and telephone etc. These allowances are fixed and payable monthly to the employee. However, employees get taxed on these to a certain extent.
2. Salary structure for a senior-level employee: Here, the employee anyway comes in a higher tax bracket. The concern here is not only to maintain a higher take-home salary but also to reduce one’s tax burden. Hence, there is a need to add more benefits in the salary structures of employees at senior levels.

However, the aim for all the levels of employees is more allowances, less taxes and more take home salary.

Tax Impacts of the salary components 

1. Fixed Salary is that part of the salary which is fixed and is the basis on which other components of the salary are calculated.
   1. Basic Salary: Generally, it is 40% to 50% of CTC (Cost to Company). Basic salary is fully taxable. Statutory components like PF, bonus, gratuity and other benefits like LTA are calculated based on this amount. Hence increase or decrease in basic salary may impact CTC of employee.
   2. Dearness Allowance: Very few private companies use it as salary component. It is mostly given to government employees. This component is also fully taxable.
   3. HRA- House Rent Allowance: HRA is paid to employee to meet expenses against paying rent of a home. Normally companies keep it 40% to 50% of basic salary depending upon where you live. In case you stay in metro cities then HRA will be kept 50% of basic salary and in case you stay in non-metro cities then HRA will be 40% of basic salary. It is due to the fact that HRA is non-taxable salary component and its taxability depends upon where you live.
   4. Conveyance Allowance: Conveyance allowance is paid to employee against expense to commute between office and home. Conveyance allowance is non-taxable up to Rs 1600/- per month
   5. Special Allowance: This allowance component is mainly used to adjust rest of the amount which is to be given to an employee. It is fully taxable allowance.
2. Variable Salary: As the name implies variable salary varies depending upon the performance of an employee. Now a days, many companies are keeping this as part of their employee CTC. Earlier, only employees related to sales or profit making department used to have variable component in their salary but now even employee from support functions like HR, admin, QA, Training etc have variable components in their salary. Companies are not willing to pay more fixed but open to pay higher variable pay as variable is related to sales and profitability of organization. Company has no problem in paying money to employees if the company is making profits. This is the reason that fixed salary is decreasing and variable pay percentage is increasing day by day.
3. Other Allowances / Reimbursement: These are also taxable but can get tax deductions upon actual bills. This component is added to both junior- and senior-level employees’ salary structures, as it gives tax-free income and helps increase the net salary. Reimbursement is paid to employees against expenses made and bills submitted. Examples of reimbursement or allowances are;
   1. Medical Reimbursement: Medical reimbursement non-taxable up to 15000 per annum. Company may pay it monthly, quarterly, half yearly or annually. Employees need to submit medical bills in support of medical expenses. Medical expenses bills for spouse, child and dependent parents are also acceptable.
   2. LTA – Leave Travel Allowance: Leave Travel Allowance or Leave Travel Concession (LTC) is paid for travel cost incurred by employee on travel. Every company has its own rule to decide on amount of LTA to be given to an employee. A company may prefer to keep it equal to monthly basic salary of employee or make it fixed depending upon grade and native place of employee. It is a non-taxable income to the extent bills of travel are submitted but there are some rules which should be kept in mind while taking benefit of LTA for tax.
   3. Training Reimbursement: It is provided to employee for expense incurred on professional training related to their job profile. Each employee needs to provide bills for same.
   4. Mobile/ Telephone Reimbursement: Mobile reimbursement is paid to employees against expense incurred for use of mobile / telephone for official purpose. Employees need to submit bill for same. Employer can fix an amount for such reimbursement. Such amount should be logical and linked with employee’s profile
   5. Books and Periodicals: This is paid to employee to reimburse expense made on purchase of books and periodicals related to their job profile. It is non-taxable if bills are submitted.
   6. Children Education Allowance: It is exempted from tax up to Rs 100 per month per child for two children.
   7. Children Hostel Allowance: It is paid to meet expenses for children’s hostel allowance. It is exempted from tax up to Rs 300 per month per child for two children.
   8. Uniform Allowance: It is fully exempted from income tax on actuals. Employee has to produce bills to claim the same. This allowance is given to meet the expenditure on the purchase and maintenance of office uniform or office formal wear worn while performing office duties. Generally all offices have dress code i.e. employee should be smartly dressed in formals. In this case, according to dress code of the office, an employee can claim uniform reimbursement for formal clothes purchased for office wear.
   9. Daily Allowance:If your normal place of duty is not fixed and you have to travel to different places, your employer can include daily allowance to meet ordinary daily charges incurred, if you are absent from normal place of duty. Reimbursement received is fully exempt from income tax against actual bills. It can be granted either on tour or period of journey in connection with transfer.
   10. Tour Allowance:Though there is no formal name for this but any allowance granted to meet the cost of travel on tour or being transferred from one place to another is called tour allowance. Reimbursement is fully exempted from income tax against actual expenditure incurred. It also includes cost towards moving your belongings to another city.
   11. Food coupons or Meal Pass: It is given to employees for meals during working hours. Rs 50/- per meal up to 2 meals per day is tax free.
4. Contributions: Contribution means contribution made by employer for employee’s long term saving schemes or social benefits scheme as per statutory compliance.
   1. Employee Provident Fund: It is the contribution made by employer (12% of Basic salary) against EPF. It is statutory obligation on part of the employer. Employee gets benefit of PF deduction (12% of basic) at his part under Section 80C of income tax.
   2. ESIC (Employee State Insurance Corporation): Employer needs to deposit 4.75% of gross salary of employee in case employee’s gross salary is less than 15000. Hence employer keeps it as part of Employee CTC.
   3. Statutory Bonus: It is statutory bonus which is paid to employees whose basic has been raised from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 21,000. Accordingly, the calculation ceiling has also been raised from Rs. 3,500 to Rs. 7,000. Even if the salary of the employee is more than Rs. 7,000, the bonus should be calculated on Rs. 7,000 only. Employer keeps it as part of CTC and is fully taxable.

Through intelligent tax planning, employees can also save tax by making investments that are tax deductible. Depending on the job profile and nature of job, one can discuss the things with his/her employer to include above mentioned allowances in their salary structure. It can help to reduce their tax outflow.

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How to Make an App | 8 Phases for Enterprise Mobile App Development

Everyone wants to know how to make an app. The meteoric rise of the app market is certainly astounding; according to Flurry Analytics, approximately eight apps are launched daily for iOS and Android devices.  As of June 2014, there were 1.2 million mobile apps in Apple’s App Store alone.
Because it’s so important to get it right the first time, there must be a careful ramp-up to building an app, especially at the enterprise level.  The approach we take with mobile app projects at AIM Consulting is to build a mobile app in phases, each with multiple steps.

PHASE 1: PRE-PLANNING FOR HOW TO BUILD AN APP

The first phase of any project is often the most important.  When building a mobile app, it’s critical to take the time to go through the necessary planning steps.

Step 1: Define the project and create use cases.  Create a written definition of your app idea that clearly spells out what it will do, who the users are and why they will care about it. Make sure you can answer the question “why does this app need to exist?” What unique problem does it solve? Will the app simplify payment transactions for customers? Will it increase productivity for field agents? What is the business case? Use this information to create use cases to guide the project.

Step 2: Do your research.  Is there already an app on the market similar to the one you are thinking to build?  If so, how can you do it better?

PHASE 2: MENTAL PROTOTYPING / DISCOVERY

A mental prototype is a brainstorm to help define a concept in visual terms.  It’s the first opportunity to start to see how the app might evolve…and to get a reality check.

Step 3: Involve the development team or technical architect.  Ideally, the development team is involved at the beginning of the project, but if the technical people who are actually going to build your mobile app aren’t already on board, now’s the time to bring them in. This is when you can determine if your idea is feasible, can be successful and what expectations you should have for time and budget.

Step 4: Storyboard.  With the use cases you created in Phase 1, create rough sketches of the idea on a sketchpad, whiteboard, or template tiles. This is the first visual representation of all the screens and will help uncover usability issues.

PHASE 3: TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT

It’s not enough to have cool interactions and an understanding of the visuals. You need to consider whether the back-end systems will actually support the app’s functionality. For basic assessment of technical feasibility, you must do the following:

Step 5: Get access to the data. Your mobile app needs to access usable data. Figuring this out could be as simple as sourcing a Public APIs or as complicated as building your own abstraction layer.

Step 6: Determine what devices you are building your app for. An app will have different requirements depending on its platform (iOS, Android, etc.) as well as the format (smartphone, tablet, wearables, etc.). At AIM Consulting, we recommend Native development for an optimal user experience tailored to a specific platform.

Step 7: Refine project definition and establish go-to-market strategy. By the end of this phase, the team may have new ideas for the app or have determined that some of the initial functionality isn’t feasible.  At this point, take some time to brainstorm, ask questions and review the status.

PHASE 4: TACTILE REFINEMENT OF USE CASES

It’s very difficult to define the touch experience without being able to touch the app and experience how it works and flows.  Phase 4 is about just that.

Step 8: Build a rapid prototype.  “Rapid” is the operative word – build a prototype that gets the app concept into a user’s hands as quickly as possible so you can see how it works for the most common use case.  Use rough, not exhaustive, wireframes.
Bring your stakeholders in to touch the prototype to garner feedback as early as possible.

PHASE 5: DESIGN YOUR APP AND PREPARE FOR DEVELOPMENT

Now is when the real work begins:

Step 9: Design for the user experience. Before you dive into code, you must design.  A User Experience (UX) Designer can create the interaction architecture of the design elements.  A User Interface (UI) Designer for mobile solutions can create the look and feel of your app. This is a multistep process with its own review stages. The end result is visual direction and blueprints that inform your engineers of the envisioned final product and how interaction should feel, move and flow.

PHASE 6: BUILD YOUR MOBILE APP WITH AGILE PRACTICES

The strategy is complete, the stage is set, and you have your design.  It is now time to build an app!

Step 10: Agile Development. Agile is the preferred approach for mobile development due the importance of collaboration, transparency, and rapid iteration to adapt to change.  These practices of adapting to change are critical to finding success in the ever-evolving mobile channel.

PHASE 7: TEST YOUR MOBILE APP

Congratulations! You have built an app. Now it’s time to get some of your target users to help you test it.

Step 11: UAT testing.  User acceptance testing is a process to discover whether your mobile app works for users. In other words, put your app in the hands of a few people in your target audience. Once your app has passed the UAT test, you know that the solution “works”.

Step 12: BETA testing.  Make your app available for a beta trial, either through an open solicitation for participants or the enrolment of previously identified groups. Feedback from beta users will help you determine whether or not the app’s functions are operating well in a real-world environment.

PHASE 8: LAUNCH – YOU BUILT AN APP!

Your app is complete and ready to submit. Pick a day and key up a formal launch. Congratulations! You have learned how to build an app!
Keep in mind, this is not the end. Every app requires updates and new features during the mobile application development lifecycle. Typically, the development cycle begins anew as soon as the first version of the app is released. Ensure you have the resources to maintain your product.  If you are working with an outside vendor to build your app, as we at AIM Consulting do for our clients, make sure that you will have continued access to the mobile development team through a managed services agreement or similar partnership after the app is launched. A mobile app is not a “set it and forget it” type of project. Like any other technology, it will require skilled people to continually build new enhancements, fix problems, and ultimately ensure its success to your business.

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10 Things to Plan for When Developing a Mobile App

Many companies have mobile apps at the top of their to-do lists, but while churning out a quick app is fairly straightforward, developing a strategic application or digital “solution” is considerably more complex. Smart planning is essential.
Here are 10 things to consider before developing your app.

1. Agree on goals for the program.

When developing a digital solution strategy, first examine your organization’s goals for the program. Are you looking to be seen as innovator, or fend off competition by showing progress in the space? Simply showing initial momentum and previewing the future roadmap can often place you ahead of the competition. Should your digital solutions help build customer loyalty and enable greater customer self-service, or is your highest priority to create new revenue streams? Once you’ve agreed on the goals, prioritize them so you’ll know where to start.

2. Understand your target users.

The next step is to understand who your target users are, their goals and requirements, and the technologies they use. This process includes researching the platforms your users are most likely utilizing, then gaining an understanding of each user experience. Every device is different, and every user has multiple needs. For example, a person might typically use an online banking application to pay a bill, but he might use the bank’s mobile application to find the closest ATM.

3. Build a user testing focus group.

Spending time with your target users is the only way to ensure you really understand what they are looking for in a mobile application. As you move through the process of discovery, you can discuss ideas with this group on a daily basis. Focus groups can provide value from the far beyond the initial discovery phase.

4. Identify a minimally viable solution set.

Don't try to tackle the whole problem at once. Instead, companies should identify a minimally viable solution and start there. In other words, release a basic but functional app as a foundation, then take advantage of the efficient upgrade paths most devices offer to provide regular updates. This enables you to enter the market more quickly and refine as needed. Plus, periodically giving your users access to new developments ensures your organization stays top-of-mind.

5. Plan for multiple releases.

With mobile applications, releasing the initial version is only the beginning. Statistics show that many users will re-engage with your application when new features are added. Spread key functionality across the first handful of releases to keep your users engaged. Be careful not to release too often, lest users feel bombarded. In many cases, a 2-3 month window between major releases will keep your users engaged over a longer period of time.

6. Balance your users and your business.

Balancing business drivers with real user needs can be difficult. In many cases, the two are at odds with one another. Therefore, arm yourself with the right information to make smart trade-offs. Collect research such as user studies, expert opinions, and business viability and technical feasibility studies. This body of data can then be weighed to achieve the best balance between user-centric solutions and business-value gains.

7. Know what is out there.

Spend time exploring apps in each of the platforms you plan to support. Each platform offers different interface paradigms and a different collection of applications. Experimenting with the most popular applications will help you understand not only what is possible on the platform, but also the user's expectations. If possible, use a different mobile platform device during the exploration process.

8. Bring your IT team into the discussions early.

The far greater technical challenge is tying your backend business processes to a digital solution that encompasses smartphones and kiosks, for example. The technology infrastructure for a multichannel solution goes well beyond the platform you choose for front-end development. In order to be successful, companies must consider how to architect data delivery and API management as well as security, scalability, content aggregation, device optimization, API translation, etc. Bring your IT team into the discussion before you get too far down the planning path.

9. Decide on a technology you can live (and grow) with.

As the mobile space matures, there will be many more application develop choices. In many cases, your goals will help determine what you choose here. For example, if your goal is to reach as many users as possible across all platforms, you may choose an HTML framework with little hardware integration. If your goal is to provide deep hardware integration for augmented reality technology, then you'll probably develop a native application. Decisions around technology can directly affect your app's functionality.

10. Plan to analyze.

The final step in the process is determining how to measure success. With a morass of potential features, devices, platforms and technologies, success can be challenging to define, but it will affect your ultimate strategy. Consider the following questions.

• Will this increase our transaction volume and, therefore, revenue?
• Will this increase customer adoption and retention?
• Will this increase our brand recognition and loyalty?
• Will this decrease our costs?
• How many people do we want using our app?
• How do we want to integrate the solution with our social media program?
• How will we integrate with our existing analytics tools?

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