If you need help with doing either of the above, we can do this for you (or show you how to do it) in Microsoft Azure.
From InQA’s Patrick Lee:
Both last year and this year I took (and passed) a Microsoft exam (which is I suppose the Microsoft equivalent of CPD – Continuing Professional Development).
Last year it was Programming in C# (certification: here), and this year it was Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate (certification: here).
We are creating a prototype, suitable for use with the UK’s Pensions Dashboard project.
Are you an entrepreneur wanting to move a new or existing business online? We can help! Here are some key tips to get started:
We wish you the very best of luck in your exciting online journey. If you need any help in making this important first step in putting your products and services online, please contact us!
If you are new to social media marketing, this post is for you!
Social media via channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Instagram and blogs, can be a very powerful addition to more traditional forms of marketing. We can help you with this. Here are some key pointers:
Good luck with your social media journey – please contact us if you would like us to help you, or with any other aspects of enhancing your presence online!
I am delighted to have passed the above course with a mark of 100%. This was the 8th course on the Microsoft Professional Program for Big Data, and means that I am on track to complete the entire program by the end of April 2019.
One example of how #AI can make it easier for your staff, customers or suppliers to interact with your software tools is to add a combined”Next Step / Tell me what you want to do” facility.
This uses natural language processing (NLP) combined with knowledge of who the user is (and what their role is, e.g. whether they are a member of staff, a customer, or a supplier, or a user with admin rights for example) and the context (which page or part of the app they are on, and what data they have stored in the system), to add two powerful new ways for the user to interact (with minimal training) with the app:
On any page, simply clicking the Go button asks the system “What’s my next step?”. The system then look intelligently at the user’s identity, role, data and location within the app and makes one or more suggestions as to what the user could usefully do next to make the most of the app.
Here are a couple of examples, taken from InQA’s WebPocketMoney application (referred to in this previous post).
Example 1: a new user has just registered and wonders what they should do. They could consult the online help file which will tell them that they need to register their family within the system. But far more simply, then can just ask “What’s my next step?” by clicking the Go button. The system guides them step by step, telling them initially that they need to create one or more families in the system:
Read More “Let your users ask “What’s my next step?” – a very useful AI addition to your apps”
Within a few short years, some companies and organisations will have adopted Artificial Intelligence (AI) in at least one part of their work: interfacing with their customers. (I’m using customers in the widest sense of the word: it could be students in education, or patients in healthcare for example).
Imagine the following:
If customers have a choice between interacting with one organisation in that way, or another in the more traditional way, I think they will vote with their feet.
Read More “Some reasons why your company/organisation should start using AI now”
Adding a chatbot to your organisation’s website can provide a more interactive experience for your users while at the same time reducing demands on your staff’s time. Chatbots can help to:
Once written, your chatbots can be made widely accessible to your staff via various channels, e.g. Microsoft Teams in Office 365, Skype for Business, Facebook and email. This means that when your staff or customers need information, they can obtain it very quickly via the most convenient route for them.
Read More “Why adding chatbots makes financial sense for your organisation”
Further to my previous post about this, we have managed to get this working successfully now with a variety of guest users (with email addresses which are outlook.com, or associated with Azure Active Directory or Azure ADB2C accounts).
Why is this so useful? Because it means that in order to collaborate with users outside your organisation (including being able to share files, hold online conversations, video chats, do online voting within your team), all you need is one of the following Office 365 subscriptions (see this Microsoft link)
Guest access is included with all Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 Enterprise, and Office 365 Education subscriptions. No additional Office 365 license is necessary. Guest access is a tenant-level setting in Microsoft Teams and is turned off by default.
This should not only be much cheaper than alternative collaboration software (e.g. box.com) but also allows your staff and guest users to use tools that they will increasingly become familiar with (Office 365).
Are you finding key information about defined benefit pension plans expensive and slow to come by?
Pensions Concerto is designed for you!
Are you finding it difficult to navigate the maze of pensions freedom in the UK?
IFA Tools is designed for you!
Do you need an easy to use online tool to help you and your staff to record and keep track of expenses?
CompanyAdmin is designed for you!
Parents: do you wish there was an easy to use online tool to help you manage your children’s pocket money and encourage them to spend and save wisely?
WebPocketMoney is designed for you!
As well as providing support for our products, we have extensive experience of developing for the web and in particular for Microsoft’s Azure cloud offering. In particular we can help you with the following:
I am delighted to have completed my latest course on the Microsoft Professional Program for Big Data with 100%: Orchestrating Big Data using Azure Data Factory. I have one more course left on the program, which I aim to complete…
Read More Another Microsoft course completed: Orchestrating Big Data using Azure Data Factory
I am delighted to have passed the above course with 100%.
(Written on a personal basis – no endorsement or approval is implied by any organisation that I am associated with.) Over the past couple of months I have been reading and thinking quite a lot about ethics in data analytics…
Read More 5 suggested draft principles for Ethical Use of Data Analytics and AI
We have been working with Patrick Lee of InQA over the past 18 years. He has been professional, helpful and proactive in supporting us to update the software regularly to meet our requirements. Overall, it is software that has helped us immensely over the past few years, and we look forward to our continued association with Patrick.
A very flexible and prompt response – thank you!
We are currently using a customized software by INQA which enables us to carry out our actuarial valuation of employee benefit plans outside the UK. The software is accurate and efficient and more importantly has an interface which is easy to understand.
InQA Limited 