Top software companies in Sri Lanka have expanded to cater to local and international clientele with the latest trends in technology. From AI-powered bots to containerising applications, many trends have influenced the way new software is developed today. With businesses now vying for customer attention across fiercely competitive markets, it is only wise to adopt the latest trends to ensure your brand and its product offerings stand out from those provided by your competition.
Through global outsourcing and EFutures, we have helped numerous businesses around the world implement cutting-edge technologies, while allowing room for fast yet affordable scalability. Irrespective of whether you maintain an in-house software development team or outsource your operations, this list of trends will help you and your team understand:
Additionally, we’ve also included a brief guide to help your business teams analyse which trends are relevant for your organisation, as well as how they can be implemented effectively.
Cloud computing and software development are deeply intertwined – and for many good reasons. Although using cloud computing services in software development isn’t exactly a newfound trend, it is one that continues to grow both in terms of size, adoption rate and variety of services offered. With leading cloud computing providers such as AWS delivering everything a software development team needs under one roof, this extensive reach has enabled software companies to scale with little effort, downtime and commitment.
As cloud-based services continue to enhance intelligent technology offerings such as AI and chatbots, software development teams are bound to continue depending on their services to function optimally, and meet a fast ROI.
AI, machine learning and other sub-technologies such as deep learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) are now all the rage, especially thanks to applications such as ChatGPT. However, AI goes far beyond chatbots alone, as exceptionally tech-centric software development teams have long since been tinkering with it through bot training and predictive analytics. Using big data to train algorithms for satisfying data science demands is a significant use case for software development, as such custom algorithms can identify patterns within data and forecast possible trends.
Software development in Sri Lanka has also jumped into this bandwagon, as more clients request the need for AI-powered applications to serve the perpetually changing preferences of a growing customer base, as well as freeing teams from common or administrative tasks.
Although many different technologies constitute self-service, the most popularly used self-service tool includes chatbots. As these virtual assistants step up to handle commonly asked questions by customers, service teams are able to focus on queries of a more complex nature. Self-service tools such as chatbots and kiosks also enable faster turnaround times for customers, as they can help themselves without having to wait for an agent to respond.
While SaaS solutions and mobile apps may likely take the chatbot route, B2C companies particularly in the finance, telecom and utilities sectors are keen to implement self-service kiosks that customers can use to make quick inquiries, transfer funds and pay bills.
If something cannot be measured, it cannot be improved – and analysing data is the first step to identifying problems and gauging whether a project, task or decision has been worthwhile. Every single technology today needs to ideally be deployed or updated based on data, which includes but isn’t limited to activity logs, trend graphs and performance evaluations.
With the modern business now depending on digital technologies in some way, shape or form, big data is bound to accumulate even via routine interactions, transactions and other forms of engagement. Filtering raw big data sets with a business intelligence solution can help businesses and software development teams alike notice what is working and what isn’t, so that software development processes can be strategically iterated with data-driven feedback.
With numerous devices now being made ‘smart’ thanks to IoT technology, building the right software to run and maintain such devices is only going to rise in demand from tech-focused businesses. In this IoT-driven era, even rudimentary household appliances such as electric kettles and toasters have been digitised to enable remote control, via a mobile app.
Software development teams building applications for organisations that sell physical devices may see potential in implementing IoT in their product offerings. With other allied technologies such as edge computing, software teams can ensure speedy feedback through localised processing and data storage, so that costs can be kept to a minimum while enhancing customer experience.
As today’s businesses continue to depend on the online landscape, cyber-attack surfaces also expand to create more vulnerabilities for enterprise networks, devices and applications. Integrating cybersecurity from the early stages of software development can enable software development teams to identify and fix any loopholes from the get-go, as opposed to risking a breach in the future.
Also known as DevSecOps, building software with a mindset and strategy that is oriented towards maintaining tight cybersecurity can reap big rewards in the long run. As your business systems and customer-facing applications remain largely impenetrable via security-first software development, this instils trust in the minds of your customers as your business reduces the likelihood of dealing with compromised data, lack of compliance as well as any PR nightmares that may follow.
As a long-standing software development company in Sri Lanka, our teams here at EFutures have seen many trends come and go. Not every software development trend is going to be worth your while, so in this guide, we outline how to identify which trends are ultimately useful, depending on your business’s unique requirements.
Thoroughly knowing what plagues your business is the first step before upgrading anything within your business, let alone a new software development trend. While leading software outsourcing companies always conduct a business assessment before building dedicated teams and initiating software development lifecycles, this is also relevant prior to implementing a new trend.
By first having a candid conversation with members across different departments, you can identify any problems, bottlenecks or silos within your business. The next step is to try and connect the dots; dig deeper with granular questions to understand exactly how the trend in question is going to solve your most pressing problems. If so, try to figure out how much it will cost, both before, during and after implementation.
Additionally, other constraints may include timeframes and technical expertise, both of which you will also need to address in order to make the implementation of a new technological trend useful as well as lucrative.
If, following your assessment, your business and software development teams decide to implement a certain trend or process within your software development lifecycle, it is advisable to always start small. Beginning with a pilot or beta version is ideal, as it can help both developers and customers gauge effectiveness.
For example, adopting an AI-based chatbot for the first time can be done as a beta release, whereupon each customer interaction can be analysed to determine whether the chatbot functioned as expected. Errors and other user-generated feedback can be collated for improving the chatbot, so the next version is enhanced and more intuitive than its predecessor.
Incrementally layering on top of a pilot or beta version when it comes to the new trend you have implemented can be a great avenue for keeping customers well engaged via improved versions of your software. Additionally, it can also help your software development teams control workloads, cost and required infrastructure for building and maintaining the software.
Data generated via user interactions and reviews can also be monitored and addressed with better attention to detail, as software development teams won’t be inundated with tasks that follow a big (or poorly scoped out) release.
New trends are always emerging in today’s highly digitised landscape, and the arena of software development is no exception. From cloud computing to AI, numerous technologies are now at the forefront, with many boasting improved customer experience, productivity or cost savings.
However, your business may not be in need of implementing every single trend that’s out there; depending on your business model, customer needs as well as any obstacles, your organisation may only require a few key technologies to gain the leverage it needs across a competitive market. By conducting a comprehensive assessment of your business before taking any significant decisions, your organisation as well as software development team will have the clarity they need to stay prepared and deliver according to proposed timeframes, budgets and other constraints.