LTS QA

In recent years, Fintech has played a game-changer role in how financial institutions operate and disrupt many business verticals. Although fintech improves many aspects of finance and brings a seamless and unique user experience, there are still major fintech challenges facing the industry. These challenges that need to be addressed are:

• Increasing cybersecurity risks
• Regulatory Issues for Fintech Companies
• Lack of trust
• High rate of technological disruption
• Needs for large investments in IT and Marketing
• High demands for technological capabilities
• High demands for personalized experience
• Lack of human touch

 

1. Increasing cybersecurity risks

Financial operations handle a great deal of information every day, of both customers and businesses. Back in the day, the information are can be stored on papers and records, but in recent years, more data is available in digital formats.

On one hand, this is an advantage for both users and the financial institutions, as it is easier to analyze and generate insights, and faster in transactions. But on the other hand, digital data is stored in a digital environment, making the data more vulnerable to security breaches than ever.

 

 

Cybersecurity risks such as data breaches or malware attacks can result in severe consequences. Names and credit card numbers can be sold on the dark web for the purposes of identity theft or fraud. Important information will be gone and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Take a look at the example of Equifax. In 2017, there had been a website application vulnerability that caused the company to lose the personal details of 145 million America to hackers. This data breach results in revenue loss and dragging lawsuits, which cost millions of dollars in total.

The alarming issue of security breaches and their risks have been brought up since the dawn of Fintech, and remains the top 1 in Fintech challenges. The threats of cybersecurity put both customers and financial institutions at stake as personal information and other private matters are exposed and exploited for the profit of hackers and fraudsters.

The concerns for data security and cybersecurity exacerbate as fintech app users demand better integration between their applications. Better integration means more third-party services and cross-border data exchanges, which in turn has a higher risk of becoming entry vectors for hackers.

 

2. Regulatory Issues for Fintech Companies – Fintech challenges

Another challenge of the fintech industry is regulatory compliance. As fintech looms large in today’s events, it has become a focal point of development for the finance sector to achieve higher revenue and better performance.

As technology enters the finance sector, regulators start to see the blurred line in the policies and regulations, and they came to the realization of the regulatory issues. New technologies are invented and implemented every day and in every scenario, and the fintech market might face threats and risks that they are not even aware of. And this calls for immediate actions to design an adequate policy framework for Fintech, no matter how challenging it is.

As of before, the regulations seem to favor traditional banks. For example, in the US and Europe, the core function of holding customer deposits may be performed only by banks. In addition, access to traditional payments systems and card networks is generally limited to banks only.

In contrast, the current market has witnessed the growing number of regulations of banks and credit unions to protect entities and users from investment fraud, cryptocurrency security, systemic risk regulation, central bank functions, money laundering and so on.

Although there are just a few countries that have taken serious measures towards the fintech market, these measures have successfully proven how they can regulate a newly formed market and protect the stakeholders.

Let’s take China as an example. In 2021 only, China has tightened business rules with IT giants and demanded changes in business practices that it considers risky and violates antitrust laws. In June, China passed the data security law, which outlines how companies collect, store, process and transmit data.

With China heading the game in how the government takes control of the fintech market, many other countries and regions are expected to take such strong measures to simultaneously bring potential benefits of technological developments and address risks.

 

3. Lack of customer trust

Despite the seemingly large adoption of Fintech, 48% of British consumers would not consider purchasing any financial product from a fintech (according to a survey of PwC).

64% of people on average say they trust banks, insurers, and wealth managers whilst only 47% say the same for peer-to-peer and digital payments companies, 48% for blockchain and crypto companies and 49% for digital wealth and robot-advisory firms.

 

 

61% of the correspondents say that “the pace of technology is too fast”. The same number said they thought the UK government does not understand emerging technology enough to regulate it effectively. As the people don’t believe that the government can regulate, they tend to go for the conventional way of financial operations. This is why lack of trust in Fintech is a major obstacle that needs to be tackled.

To do this, maybe you should consider the current user preferences, which are:

• Brand and reputation of the services and their financial wellbeings. As fintech has just been developed in recent years, the number of potential customers is limited, and you should know how to build your brand to suit the customer insights.
• The customers rarely scan the market for new offerings, so new entrants must have a significantly higher level of proposition differentiation to attract customers.

 

4. High rate of technological disruption

Technological disruption refers to the new technology that completely changes the way things are done. You might think new technologies are a good thing, right? But actually, there have been several disadvantages of this matter

Disruptive technology overturns a traditional business model, which makes it much harder for an established firm to embrace. And it can also make anything that has been developed before became obsolete.

With new technologies being advented, only small proportions of tech elites know how to apply and implement these new technologies. It is hard for the rest of the developers to catch up. For users, many get uncomfortable with the new technologies as they cannot fully embrace and understand them.

To put it broader, people also believe that technology is advancing faster than they are able to make full use of it.

If technology is increasingly seen as a sinister influence, that could override any improvement in familiarity with the leading fintech brands, and hence worsen the trust gap overall.

 

5. Needs for large investments in IT and Marketing

Global fintech investment hits remarkable rebound in H1’21, rising from $87 billion in H2’20 to $98 billion in H1’21. The sign of large investments seems to be beneficial for the market overall, but huge investments come with huge spending.

For the technology part, it would take a long time for an application/a product/a service to form and it can cost you a fortune to put them into operation.

 

 

For example, a finance app with basic functionality and a simple UI for a single platform will cost about $20,000-$35,000 to create. Building a best-in-class banking app with extensive features will cost between $40,000 and $70,000. The cost of developing feature-rich finance and banking apps for Android/iOS. It provides a sophisticated user interface that can range from $70,000 and more depending on the needs. There are many factors that combine to determine the cost of developing a banking application. Not to mention maintenance costs.

Besides the development costs, financial institutions also have to put more emphasis on investment in marketing.

Like any other sector, getting customers to try on something new and digitalized is very hard, especially with many industry giants in the game. Many startups and enterprises have to pour millions of dollars to get customers hooked on their apps and become frequent users. And many (29% of cases) are due to running out of funding and personal money.

According to AppsFlyer’s data, Finance apps spent $3 billion on user acquisition in 2020, and no less than $1.2 billion in Q1 2021 alone. The first quarter of 2021 also witnessed a record surge in total spending reaching no less than $1.2 billion for marketing activities.

 

6. High demands for personalized experience

Customers have come to expect a level of personal service from companies that is the digital version of a 24/7 concierge. Some digital wallets now allow their customers to adjust the UI themes and what features they want to highlight in the applications.

According to the findings of an IBM report from the Institute for Business Value:

• 76% of consumers expect organizations to understand their individual needs
• 81% of consumers demand improved response time
• 68% of them anticipate that organizations will harmonize consumer experiences

When talking about personalization experience, many often link it to big data and data analysis. However, the actual utility of big data is not that vast. For this particular field, the technology is only scratching on the surface, and the implementation of big data in user analysis is still very limited. Businesses now have to work on big data and data analysis more to apply it for the improvement of user experience.

 

7. Lack of human touch

People who previously handled most of their financial business in-person may feel put-off and alienated, or even confused and defeated, by something like a banking app.

For tech-savvy youngsters, fintech applications are very easy to use, but the other half of the population doesn’t think so. They, the senior citizens, can’t keep up with the technologies. They are familiar with and more fond of human interaction.

 

 

Many fintech apps now lack the “human touch”, and this can lead to customer loss of very potential customers. For senior users, technology may not be their advantage, but they are a very potential customer segment for financial services.

In human-to-human interaction, trust and relationships are built. For important transactions and decisions, people always value the information that comes from actual humans rather than some random machine. Without a human side to fintech, consumers are less equipped to make informed decisions about their money or data, or feel empowered and confident in adopting new technologies.

For businesses, direct interaction with the customers can provide them with valuable experience. Through talking and making eye contact, the customers will have a good impression on the brand and the technology.

Current fintech applications still lack the human touch and could cause some discomfort for users.

 

8. High demands for technological capabilities

The current trends of the Fintech market, including Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, IoT, cloud computing, have been on the market for a long time, but they still have many for us to discover. Not many can call themselves the experts of these trends.

More importantly, AI and ML are being used in many banking services and data analysis activities, but they are just some scratches on the surface (in some simple operations). Hence, we need to learn more about AI and ML to fully captivate their potentials.

The market is becoming more demanding with tech workers. Ask any recruiter you know, and they would all tell you that they are looking for senior developers or senior testers. Especially for the fintech industry, they also need someone that can understand both the technologies and the finance sector.

Not all companies can put together a strong in-house team to build an app. Thus, more and more companies choose to outsource financial technology software development to get well-functioning and user-friendly applications.

A premade team of professionals allows you to start developing your application immediately. Moreover, you will not have to spend your budget on recruitment, training of new employees, as well as on vacation payments. Outsourcing allows you to significantly reduce costs in the long run, save on operating costs and, at the same time, achieve your goals and complete tasks quickly and efficiently.

 

Lotus QA, with years of working in the tech industry, especially the finance sector, will be an excellent choice for businesses looking for technical experts of high programming capabilities.

Contact us:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

2021 has seen an incredibly strong start to the year for the global fintech market. As 2020 marked the year of people shifting towards easy options to meet their financial needs due to the pandemic, 2021 is to witness many fintech trends surge. These trends are:

• Omnichannel payments
• Digital Banking / Virtual Banking
• Blockchain/Cryptocurrency
• Cybersecurity
• Robotic Process Automation for digital tasks
• ML & AI Chatbots
• Biometric security
• Insurtech
• Open financial data

 

1. Top fintech trends 2021 – Omnichannel payments

The phrase “Omnichannel payments” refers to a new payment processing format in which payments can be made via multiple channels, either it is in-person sales, online or in-app. In regards of business’ benefits, omnichannel can give an overall view of your customer’s interactions, hence providing revenue-driving solutions across the entire payment ecosystem.

In regards to users, omnichannel enables integrated, consistent user experience across touchpoints and channels. Put simply, users now can conduct monetary transactions in whichever way suits them the best.

 

 

The reason why omnichannel payments stay on top of this list is the urgent need for it. With Gen-Z and tech-savvy consumers dominating the fintech audience, the demands for a seamless and fast payment platform are higher than ever. They want to buy and switch platforms in the quickest way possible, and omnichannel is a solution to go for this.

With omnichannel payments, payment data is unified, creating a premise for more comprehensive data acquisition. The data collected and analyzed through omnichannel payment platforms can form a single and accurate view of how an individual user behaves and spends. Any adjustments and adaptation can later be taken into action for a better and more coherent user experience.

 

2. Digital Banking / Virtual Banking

Digital banking – or virtual banking – is a common term that you might encounter in your daily lives. Digital banks are the kind of banks that deal in delivering virtual banking services. Most of the operations and transactions are made online, enabling better user experience.

Digital Banking has just been popular for almost 10 years now, but in the shortest possible time, this trend has been the game-changer in every banking institute.
Let’s take the example of Vietnam. Here, the deciding factor for users to choose which bank to use is the banking app and how user-friendly it is for them to make transactions. A simple poll on Facebook has indicated that those with nice UX designs and multi-function features are the most popular banking apps of all.

As digital banking offers a virtual way to connect, people no longer need to wait in a queue or physically visit a bank. Especially with the pandemic taking its toll on the world, the way digital banking offers contactless and paperless transactions secure safety for users.

Another example from Vietnam is that the top-tier banks have already applied opening online bank accounts, which can save a great deal of time and effort from both the banks and users.

Digital banking is fast, paperless and contactless. It takes less time to have a bank account and virtual banking cards. With the pandemic still going on, this is a huge benefit and more and more people will be using digital banking in the future.

 

 

3. More mature Blockchain/Cryptocurrency market

The booming of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency market was once deemed as a “Bubble Economy” in the 2017 – 2018 phase. However, entering 2021, the world once again witnessed the surging population and revenue of the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency market.

Especially, Blockchain technology is applied in many fields, with the most notable one is the application of digital banking and virtual banking. The reason why Blockchain technology is soaring in popularity is the transparency and cost reduction it can provide to the market.

 

 

Back in 2017 – 2018, the market of Cryptocurrency did have a skyrocket market value, but it also stumbled upon many obstacles. We all heard the story of how some rumors about banning and restrictions in China and Korea can shake up the market make people dump their coins.

In 2021 and the years coming, there will be drastic changes in how governments handle cryptocurrency. China and India will impose further regulations for settlements. These events will consolidate the legal frame and foundation for cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology to thrive in the future.

As the cryptocurrency market is getting more mature, this prominent “new playground” will continue to attract investments from VC and ICOs. Moreover, the Blockchain technology, with its outstanding performance in transparency and cost reduction capabilities, will continue to prove its profound application in many successful projects.

 

4. Robotic Process Automation for digital tasks

Robotic Process Automation utilizes digital robots to automate daily routine tasks. It has been adopted and implemented by many businesses in the world.

In a small survey of Deloitte Global RPA Survey, 53% of respondents have already started their RPA journey and further 19% of respondents plan to adopt RPA in the next two years. RPA is increasingly becoming an enterprise-level opportunity: for 64% of respondents on the RPA journey, it is a strategic or enterprise-wide initiative. This figure has grown significantly. Just 12 months ago, only 15% of respondents reported RPA being a part of a wider corporate initiative. (Deloitte Global RPA Survey)

This new technology is promised to cut down some operational costs massively as it can help us in:

• Automation in data validation & data migration between banking applications
• Customer account management
• Report creation
• Form filling
• Loan claim processing service
• Loan data updates
• Back-up of interest teller receipt

 

As businesses want to cut down cost as much as possible, RPA comes in handy because it can enhance customer service, improve accuracy and facilitate productivity. Throughout their work, the RPA can even collect data to, later on, improve data analytics.

Moreover, RPA can also handle the high volume of data at the same time without a glitch, which will be of great advantage to the customer experience. For advanced RPA, they can have the learning capability to take the customer experience to the next level.

 

5. ML & AI Chatbots in banking sector’s customer care

ML & AI have many applications, but in fintech, the most obvious one is how they can form virtual assistants. These VA can handle customers’ financial queries such as transactions, account balances and get the best investment advice.

The concept of Chatbots has been developed long before, but the use of them are quite primitive and not as satisfactory as people expected. But with the development of technology, these chatbots have become smarter and capable of handling complex commands in a much faster sense.

For enterprises, machine learning and artificial intelligence can also help examine credit data, identify customer behavior and so on. From the data collected, fintech companies or financial enterprises and improve customer engagement by offering the services that fit their customers’ needs most, hence alleviating the services’ quality.

 

6. Biometric security in fintech trends

When talking about biometric security, people often link it to the old-fashioned approach of fingerprints, finger veins, faces, or irises. However, in the Fintech industry with many security concerns on the rise, the needs for more advanced and technology-instilled security measures are higher than ever.

 

 

With the numbers of online transactions and users are plummeting, security, or biometric security in this case, needs to be taken to the next level. The risks of data breaches and security failures could result in severe consequences. In 2021, data breach costs rose from $3.86 million to $4.24 million, which is the highest total cost in the 17-year history. The main reason for these breaches came from remote work factor.

With Covid-19 Pandemic shows no sign of slowing down, the contactless biometric solution is the financial technology that is all set to replace touch-based solution. Such solution will be very beneficial in these times as people are trying to avoid using cash and making payments through devices that do not involve touching.

 

7. Cybersecurity

As technology is developing, the risks in their uses increase, especially in a prominent market as fintech. For banks and financial organizations, customers are at the risk of identity theft, money theft and laundering, application breaches and data leaks, spoofing, malware attacks and many more.

The fear of security threats becomes more severe as they can cause money loss on both users and enterprises. Lawsuits and other legal claims are also more complicated because of this. Hence, businesses are now under great pressure to take action in protecting their customers and gain their trust. Any company or enterprises that fail to do so might have to deal with serious consequences later on.

 

8. Open financial data

Open financial data is the data shared with third parties in a global movement. These fintech trends can also be referred to as open banking services, which was initially formed in the UK during the Brexit process, and later on, became more widespread in the international market.

The reason why this trend is so popular recently is that it can bring many benefits to both the enterprises and the customers.

• For enterprises, open financial data allows an expanding universe of players—both financial and non-financial—to access customer accounts and data to offer new products and services. From customer analysis and customer insights segmentation, enterprises now can have a more strategic approach in how they can improve their services.
• For customers, open financial data affords greater flexibility in how their money is managed, allowing, for instance, better visibility of accounts and more convenient access to payments.

All in all, open financial data helps increase access to financial services for users. For example, customers of banks can now get loans in a faster time, and banks themselves can also process the loans faster. Getting loans in a faster time. This is very convenient for both parties.

Businesses would definitely want to capture these essences to attract more customers and enhance customer experience.

 

Conclusion: Fintech is one of the strongest sectors to grow in 2021, and these 9 fintech trends are shaping the way we use technology in the future. To implement the use of technology in financial services and platforms is no easy task, as it requires experty in both fields to really capture the essence of customer experience and how to enhance it.

If you are looking for help from experts in the fintech sector, contact Lotus QA now for more information. Lotus QA has years of experience in assisting financial businesses in digital transformation and implementation.

 

Contact us:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

 

Founded in 2016, Lotus Quality Assurance has been providing high-quality end-to-end IT services including Software Testing Service, Software Development, and AI Data Processing. Our cutting-edge technologies and experience in the industry ensure top-tier services to enhance business productivity throughout the years. 

Today, we are proud and excited to announce our most significant achievement with all of you! Clutch’s 2021 research says that Lotus Quality Assurance is one of Vietnam’s top software testing companies in Vietnam. Here’s what our CEO had to say: 

 

 

If you didn’t know Clutch, it is a B2B ratings and reviews platform based in Washington, DC. They evaluate technology service and solutions companies based on the quality of work, thought leadership, and client reviews. Throughout the year, Clutch highlights its highest-ranking firms across industries and locations. The Clutch Leader Awards recognize companies’ commitment to building their expertise, providing stellar customer service, and producing high-quality results for clients.

 

Receiving this award is no small feat, so we’re incredibly proud that Clutch has recognized our merit and top-tier work. With this said, we extend our gratitude to the whole team at Clutch for this opportunity in allowing us to reach a wider audience. Of course, we also thank our amazing clients for taking the time to leave us reviews on our Clutch profile. Thank you for choosing and trusting our team in handling your business needs.

Are you interested in working with us? Drop us a message, and let us know how we can help!

Fintech market is one of the most developing and booming sectors in the world’s economy with Global fintech investment rise of almost 15% from H2’20 to H1’21. The number of Fintech deal volume also hit a new record of 2,456 during H1’21, marking a new milestone for this sector in the global market.

As 4.0 Technology enters every aspect of our lives, finance is not an exception. In fact, Fintech is leading and driving many companies’ transformation towards a more client-centric way.

Taking from what Fintech have achieved in the last five years, it is forecast to be a growth of 23.84% in a five-year period – from 2020 – 2026. Such outstanding prominent growth raises questions concerning what have been done in FinTech sector and what can be expected from this booming industry. Let’s unveil the success of FinTech in the following article.

 

1. Why Fintech Market is booming

The world have witnessed the unprecedented growth of Technology and eventually the extensive application of technology in one of the most important industry – finance.

Before digging deeper into why FinTech market can make such a successful debut in the world’s market and have such profound effects, we need to understand the term fintech. In short, fintech refers to any kinds of technology and innovation implemented by FinTech company in finance sector to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services to customers.

The development and success of Fintech lie upon many factors, with the most notable ones being the needs for more conveniences, cost-effectiveness, contactless and paperless trends and the security and transparency it can provide.

 

a. The needs for more convenience in finance

The world have never been this technology-infused. Literally everyone can get access to the Internet through smartphones and other digital devices, not to mention many other technological services.

As global consumers use technology more in their lives, they demand more technological advances and conveniences in the most complicated sectors. And finance is at the top of the list.

Under the influences of technology-infused advances, the competition among service providers is more intense than ever. The core for their business operation is now customer-centricity, in which customer experience is of the highest priority.

This is when FinTech steps in the game. With the help of technology in such a complicated and cumbersome sector as Finance, financial processes and services are carried out in a faster manner, which eventually enhances customer experiences.

Let’s take a fine example at how Banks operate now. While traditional banks have fallen behind the digital curve, virtual banks are more favored than ever. With just smart devices such as mobile phones or tablets, customers can open a bank account with just a few steps. This can save up a lot of time of going to the bank, standing in queue and filling out forms.

As opposed to the convenience in how FinTech can help customers in saving time and effort, the regulation in Fintech is perhaps the most critical challenge facing the traditional banking sector.

 

b. Cost-effectiveness

It’s all about the big picture here. For many businesses, the initial cost for building Fintech platforms/apps is enormous, but it will be beneficial in the long-run.

For example, building a Chatbot in banking apps can take up months, but once the chatbot is in operation, it could save a fortune on HR expenses. No more hiring costs and compensation costs.

Another fine example of this is when you want to open a banking account without going to the bank. By applying online, banking institutions can save up a lot of time and effort. Instead of wasting time on minute tasks, they can actually help someone with a more serious problem.

 

c. Contactless and Paperless trends

Under the influence of the pandemic, everyone wants things to move faster with less contact. With the help of fintech, the obsolete payment system can now be faster and more compatible with modern devices. Paperless storage is also another hot topic for customers to engage in.

By implementing fintech, you are not just offering more professional service but also helping to enhance сuѕtоmеr rеlаtіоnѕ, increasing the probability of them returning as a regular buуеr.

 

d. Security and Transparency

Fintech have high capability to increase security and transparency. In the world of 4.0 technology, the fear of information leakage is huge, but with the encryption of the latest technology such as blockchain, this can be prevented.

For transparency, everything is recorded and stored for further uses. Customers can now manage payroll, send invoices, track projects and capture data – all in a single, accessible digital platform.

 

2. What have been achieved in Fintech Market

The Fintech market in the period of 2020 – 2021 has gained sustainable growth in how it thrives during the pandemic. This sector also promises greater development, thanks to the enormous investments from different sources.

 

a. Investment

Although fintech was certain to become a dominant force in the future of finance, this growth was rapidly accelerated by the pandemic and the necessity of digital transformation.

After the unexpectedly strong growth in 2021, the investment in the first half of 2021 sees a massive rebound. The investment in all three categories of Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Merger & Acquisition as a whole is expected to show growth in 2021.

Global fintech investment continued its remarkable rebound in H1’21, rising from $87 billion in H2’20 to $98 billion in H1’21. Fintech deal volume hit a new record of 2,456 during H1’21.

 

b. Market Growth from 2018 – present

The Fintech market has witnessed drastic growth in many regions of the world. For example, in the UK, the use of FinTech apps amid the pandemic grew by more than 50%, in Europe this number is 72%.

The global fintech market was worth $127.66 billion in 2018, and it is expected to reach $309.98 billion at a CAGR Of 24.8% through 2022. According to PRNewswire.com

By the end of 2021, the total transaction value was expected to surpass $6.68 trillion. In 2020, it was at $5.47 trillion, while in 2017, it was only $3.04 trillion. These figures point to strong Fintech growth, especially in the digital payments sector.

 

3. What to expect in the Fintech Market in 2021-2026 phase

The global fintech market size is expected to grow to USD 124.3 Billion by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 23.84%.

 

The Fintech sector has been a success everywhere, but the strongest market is in America, as the US accounts for the overlarge majority of $42.1 billion worth of investment in Fintech. Investment in the EMEA region was also very robust at $39.1 billion. In the Asia-Pacific region, fintech investment rose considerably between H2’20 and H1’21 – rising from $4.5 billion to $7.5 billion, although investment remained suppressed compared to previous record highs.

The UK’s annual fintech revenue is about £7 billion (circa $9.57 billion), and the sector has grown by almost 70% since 2015.

In Asia-Pacific, the top five Asia-Pacific fintech hubs in 2020 list end with Hong Kong, China, and Sydney, Australia

Besides the familiar names, Vietnam also has a very potential fintech market. The number of startups in Vietnam’s fintech sector has tripled from 2017 to 2020. Specifically, Vietnam had 44 fintech startups in 2017, but by 2020 this number will be 118.

Along with the rise of e-commerce in Vietnam, digital payments have been the most prominent segment within the fintech landscape.

In recent years, the country has recorded a significant increase in the transaction values from e-wallets and mobile banking. About Transaction Value of Digital payments in Vietnam, it is worth 8.6bn USD. The forecasted number of registered mobile wallets in Vietnam is worth 6.5m USD.

Looking at these impressive numbers, Vietnam has a high potential of growing and developing Fintech Apps. In fact, there are a large number of Vietnamese business providing Fintech development services at a reasonable price from the top-tier talents.

If you’re looking for a vendor for this, contact Lotus TS for more information. Lotus TS has years of experience working in the Fintech sector and providing software development services.

Contact us:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

With the increasingly high demand for software testing on the global market, Vietnam, as one of the top countries to provide software outsourcing services, has seen a rise in the companies offering software testing services. Software testing companies in Vietnam have many years of experience in quality assurance. These companies are the representatives of what Vietnam can offer for the testing market: affordable budget, domain experts and dedicated supports.

Top 10 software testing outsourcing companies in Vietnam

Lotus Quality Assurance

Lotus Quality Assurance (LQA) is ranking as top 3 Software testing companies in Vietnam, recognized by the Clutch B2B rating platform in 2021. Founded in 2016, Lotus QA is a young yet promising company working in the software testing industry. With a competitive price of no more than $25/hour, Lotus QA has successfully proven its competency and dedication to clients’ experience, gaining us the honorable Sao Khue awards and the reputation of top-notch services in the demanding market of America, Japan, Korea, etc.

Software testing services at LQA include QA consultation, testing implementation, and testing talents for hire. LQA’s expertise is mobile app testing, web app testing and automation testing, proven through successful projects with many renowned businesses in the world such as Toshiba, LG’s Electronics, AVN, Panasonic, etc.

Throughout 5 years of development, Lotus QA has witnessed the biggest growth rate in company size with 248 employees, 30% of which are manual testers and automation testers. With the experience working mainly in medium-sized and small projects, Lotus QA can well provide you with top-notch software testing services with midmarket and small businesses.

Lotus Quality Assurance (LQA) – Top Software testing companies in Vietnam

KMS Solutions, Inc.

With 12 years working in the IT sector, KMS Solutions have served 130+ clients, helping them save $139M in different IT services, notably software testing services.

To achieve these impressive numbers, KMS Solutions provide industry-leading solutions for sustainable, profitable growth. Through comprehensive software QA and testing services, KMS Solutions offer high-quality engineers with comprehensive domain experience, with a competitive price.

Especially, KMS Solutions apply an automation-first mindset to everything they build. This mindset allows their testers to deliver quality software at faster speeds expediting your time-to-market.

FPT Software

FPT Software is a giant in Vietnam’s IT outsourcing market with an international-acclaimed reputation. In FPT Software, clients work with a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE), which is a command center that makes use of standardized tools and processes to enhance the alignment between enterprise environment and IT, and increase QA efficiency.

FPT Software can provide you with multiple quality assurance and software testing services, but the most recent success of FPT Software lies in the implementation of automation testing. With the use of certified and standardized testing tools, FPT Software gains the trust of many clients. To meet the requirements of testers, FPT Software has developed a team of 1,700 testers worldwide, offering their expertise to 200+ clients of all industries.

Logi Gear

Established in 1994, LogiGear is always rank in Top Software testing companies in Vietnam with wide experience, especially in automated testing. They spent more than 27 years optimizing their testing services. The most stand-out testing services in Logi Gear are:

– Automation testing: With well-versed experts in a variety of Test Automation tools, Logi Gear can boost up the testing process and save time.

– Functional testing: LogiGear provides a QA functional testing service that utilizes decades of knowledge of Software Testing and specialized Test Automation tools.

– Offshore teams: LogiGear can solve the problems of lack of Subject Matter Expertise, lack of Infrastructure/Resources, scalability of QA and time-to-market.

CO-WELL Asia

CO-WELL Asia is currently an emerging destination for software testing services. With 400 IT engineers working in Hanoi and Da Nang that graduated from the top universities of Vietnam and many others all over the world, CO-WELL Asia can offer a higher ratio of QA testers to programmers in comparison to other Vietnamese companies.

Especially in CO-WELL Asia, various training courses have been organized in Vietnam as well as abroad to enhance staff’s technical level and soft skills. With these skills, CO-WELL Asia can bring optimum value to our customers.

In terms of skill composition, 40% of the staff are PHP, 12% of .Net, 12% of Java, 36% of HTML, iOS, Perl and other languages. Moreover, CO-WELL Asia achieved ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Certificate of Information Security Standard and multiple Sao Khue awards, including the best ten software outsourcing services in Vietnam.

MeU Solutions INC

For MeU Solutions, their main testing services are Manual Testing, Automation Testing and Security Testing. Through their 13 years of experience, they have done 100+ projects with 30+ pools of real devices. Their current testing staff is 30+ QA engineers, working with a low hourly rate of under $25/ hr.

With profound expertise in testing an extensive range of iOS, Android and web applications, MeU Solutions INC has successfully delivered quality apps to global clientele.

TMA Solutions

TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide TMA Solutions is one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 3,000 engineers. Their engineering team was selected from a large pool of Vietnam IT engineers; they are well-trained and have successfully completed many large and complex projects.

TMS Solutions is quite a big name in the Software Testing market in Vietnam. Their main service offerings include full product verification, test planning & execution and test automation. With just under the fee of $20/ hr, you can hire their best teams to carry out software testing services for you.

SHIFT ASIA

SHIFT ASIA opened its office in HCM Vietnam in 2016, as a strategic SEA hub to scale operations and better serve the greater APAC region. Started off with 25 QA professionals for the manual testing division, SHIFT ASIA has since grown into a full-functioning office handling international clients.

Through their years of development, SHIFT ASIA now has 200 passionate employees with diverse backgrounds and expertise. The things that facilitate our wide service offerings are security assessment, test automation, international inspection, offshore development and many more.

Waverley Software

Waverley Software is another big name in the list of software testing companies in Vietnam. This brand was started in 1992 in the US, and then reached out to the world through the expansion in many countries, namely Vietnam.

In Vietnam’s market, Waverly Software stands out as a top-quality QA company, providing all kinds of testing services. Waverley’s quality assurance and software testing services help companies around the world build

uality products. They conduct QA audits, provide standalone software QA, manual testing, and test automation services using agile testing methodology. At Waverley, they design their own testing tools; provide various types of software testing; write test documentation including test plans, checklists and test cases; monitor quality metrics and conduct data analytics. Their office in Ho Chi Minh City hosts some of South East Asia’s top software testers. Waverley Software conducts training programs for technology graduates on a regular basis, which allows them to rapidly scale their clients’ teams with trained talents for a smooth testing process.

Axon Active

Axon Active is the last name in the top 10 software testing companies in Vietnam. Axon Active’s offshore testing center not only provides regular offshore software testing services but also works towards becoming a trusted consulting partner. They aims to help design a strategic software testing process for the clients’ business and advice suitable software testing solutions that improve your business efficiency and performance, helping you achieve long-term objectives.

A quick comparison among the top 10 software testing companies in Vietnam

Company	Hourly rate	Employees	Founded Year	Main testing services
Lotus Quality Assurance	< $25 / hr	248	2016	– Web & Moblie App Testing testing – Embbeded Software Testing – Automation Testing – Integration Testing – API Testing
KMS Solutions, Inc.	Undisclosed	50 – 249	2009	– Test Automation – API Testing – Mobile Testing
FPT Software	< $25 / hr	10,000+	1988	– Web & Moblie App Testing testing – Embedded product testing – Cloud testing – Inter-operability (IoP) testing
CO-WELL ASIA	1,000 – 9,999	$50,000+	2011	– Web App Testing – Mobile App Testing – Data Migration Testing – Testing tools & Project management tools
Logi gear	Undisclosed	50 – 249	1994	– Web & Mobile Testing – Test Automation – API Testing – Localization Testing – Games & IoT Testing
MeU Solutions INC	< $25 / hr	50 – 249	2016	– Shift-Right Testing – Effectively Managed Testing – Automation Sign-On Package
TMA Solution	< $25 / hr	1,000 – 9,999	1997	– Full Product Verification – Web & Mobile App Testing – Test Automation
SHIFT ASIA	< $25 / hr	50 – 249	2016	– Web & Mobile App Testing​ – Vulnerability Test
Axon Active	Undisclosed	250 – 999	2008	– Web & Mobile App Testing
Waverley Software	$25 – $49 / hr	250 – 999	1992	– Web & Mobile App Testing

Conclusion

Vietnam has the potential to become a new software testing outsourcing hub of Asia. With the Introduction of top 10 Software Testing Company in Vietnam, we hope you can find the best service provider for your testing projects. If you are small or medium-sized company looking for top-notch software testing companies in Vietnam, you can contact Lotus Quality Assurance’s expert and let us know what we can help you with!

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

 

South-East Asia has recently gained the reputation of an emerging technology hub. This region is not only the home of many tech unicorns but also a destination for multiple outsourcing services. Among these services, Vietnam software outsourcing stands out as the must-try solution for any business looking for top-notch IT outsourcing services. With the competitive price tops off the list, Vietnam also offers a proficient talent pool, stronger economic potentials, and a more competitive market.

When talking about Vietnam, people often link the country to the picture of a dynamic market and growing industrial development or war-torn history. But with the recent success and new orientation towards the growth of information technology, software development in Vietnam has successfully gained the trust of international clients.

 

 

1. Vietnam software outsourcing holds great potentials and a strong foundation

Vietnam is located at the heart of Southeast Asia, in GMT+7, which is 12 hours ahead of the US, 7 hours ahead of the UK, 3 hours behind of Australia, 2 hours behind of Japan and Korea. Vietnam’s economy is forecast to grow by about 4.8 percent in 2021: WB. More specifically, as of June 20, 2021, foreign investment projects (FDI) were estimated to disburse US$9.24 billion, an increase of 6.8 percent compared to the same period in 2020.

Vietnam is developing steadily despite the recent outburst of the COVID – 19 Delta variant. And one of the booming industries is Vietnam software outsourcing.

 

Vietnam is thriving in the ICT industry, especially with software export

Since the rise of IT outsourcing services about 15 years ago, Vietnam software outsourcing has always been a hidden gem for businesses to apply technology. In fact, in recent years, Vietnam has proven its capabilities as Japan’s second-largest partner in terms of software development and service outsourcing from 2014 to present.

 

 

According to 2021’s Global Services Location Index, Vietnam emerged as a new digital hub as we ranked the 6th with 4 main categories: financial attractiveness, people skills & availability, business environment and digital resonance. Vietnam also ranked 9th in Tholon’s Top 50 Digital Nations. From an obsolete country with barely any technological advancements 20 years ago, Vietnam has spurred rapid digital transformation to the point that our ICT businesses not only provide services to the domestic market but also export a great deal of software and other solutions. This development is proven through the following number:

• The total ICT export is reported to be $91.5B, bringing $3.5B of software export turnover. This number is predicted to grow at least 5% in 2021.
• The software & IT services accounted for $11.0B (according to a report of Vietnam Software and IT Services Association).

Since 2016, Vietnam’s been describes as “South East Asia’s Silicon Valley”, predicting a booming digital economy in the years coming. This exponential development will be taken to another level as the government has stepped in to form legal frameworks and initiatives, and put focus on IT sector’s growth.

With these impressive achievements through the hardest time amidst the pandemic and experiences working with the most demanding clients in the world, Vietnam is becoming more and more favored in the world’s software outsourcing market.

 

Vietnam’s IT Market Growth Index

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications’ 2019 summary and 2020 orientation report, total ICT industry revenue in 2019 is estimated at $112,350B, including 81.5% for ICT export.

2020 marked the first year that Vietnam officially announced its focus on developing digital technology businesses, the “Make in Vietnam” strategy. The number of digital technology businesses has since increased by 28%, reaching nearly 60,000 companies.

Vietnam’s digital technology businesses will concentrate on 12 key areas such as E-commerce, Fintech, Ride/food order, Edtech, Healthcare, AI, Machine Learning, Blockchain, etc. With this concentration aligning with the world’s trends, Vietnam’s capabilities can meet the demands of the world, particularly of the businesses looking for IT outsourcing services.

 

You may interest:Top IT Outsourcing Company in Vietnam

 

2. Plentiful IT Human Resource

Vietnam has to face the talent shortage problem like many other nations in the world, but the current number of IT workers shows a prominent outlook for the development of the whole industry. The numbers can speak for themselves:

• Currently, Vietnam has approximately 400,000 IT engineers working in multiple fields.
• There are about 50,000 students who graduate from training institutions annually.
• About 53% of the IT workforce have from 1 – 3 years of experience. Interesting enough, although they have just a few years of experience, many Vietnamese tech engineers have the level of Senior / Lead expertise.

Through these numbers, Vietnam is proven to have a sufficient talent pool to meet the demand on IT engineers.

 

 

Resonating with the current trends of the world, Vietnamese IT engineers focus on some of the most popular technologies, including:

• For Frameworks/Library: Laravel (49.6%), NodeJS (36.4%), React (27.9%)
• For Database: MySQL (59.1%), SQL Server (40.0%), PostgreSQL (32.9%)
• For IDE & text editor: Visual Studio Code (35.2%) , Sublime Text (34.9%), IntelliJ (33.5%)

These technologies only represent a small percentage of what Vietnamese engineers are capable of. For many other technical services such as quality assurance, BPO, IT consulting, Vietnam’s technical landscape is even bigger, aligning with the world’s demands.

 

3. High-quality IT Worker

It came as a surprise for many business leaders when they evaluate the proficiency of IT workforce in Vietnam. No one could imagine a country once torn by the war can achieve so much in technology, especially in how IT institutions train and educate 50,000 IT engineers a year.

 

Early IT education and a large number of IT institutions

In Vietnam, education on technology is compulsory since an early age. You can see 15-year-old students taking classes in computer science and C++, and it’s just part of Vietnam’s high-school computer science education curriculum. Entering colleges, these students can have wider choices with 153 IT institutions, each specializes in one particular sector. For example, the University of Transport and Communications has its own IT major and the Hanoi University of Industry also has an IT major.

 

High level of professional competency 

Entering the workforce, IT graduates show great qualities in how we learn and adapt to the everchanging demands in technology sectors. For example, according to Global Skills Index 2020, Vietnam’s technology skill sets rank second in Asia Pacific and 22nd globally.

Also in Coursera’s 2021 Global Skills Report, in terms of Technology, Vietnam ranked 3rd in Asia Pacific. More specifically, Vietnam ranks 3rd in Computer Engineering and Software Programming, which is quite a benefit for clients looking for software development services.

 

 

As in a survey made by PwC, to respond to the digital demands, 84% of respondents say that they would learn new skills now or completely retrain in order to improve future employability. This number shows the readiness for Vietnamese tech engineers to adapt to the changes of the global technology landscape if it is to come.

Besides simple services such as software development, Vietnamese businesses also provide other technical services, from simple to high-tech, including BPO, software testing, programming to R&D consulting, system design, AI, Big Data, Blockchain, IoT, Robotics, VR, RPA, etc. Even some companies have been trusted in implementing digital transformation for corporations in the Global Fortune 500.

 

 

Language proficiency for Vietnam Software Development

For any college, it is compulsory for IT graduates to obtain Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) level B1. For advanced programs, the B2 level is a must. Thanks to the preparation for language proficiency, Vietnamese tech engineers have the foundation to join the IT workforce. With language skills in hand, they can both communicate with clients from other countries and learn new skills on international forums.

Leaving college, IT workers step into the market with adequate language proficiency, in which 90% of them can communicate in English, 67% of them have Intermediate and Advanced English Level and 23% of the IT workers now have Elementary English skills.

In Vietnam, English is the dominant language in the IT market, while other languages like Japanese is not as popular among IT workers. However, many businesses targeting the non-English market have shown that they are capable of dealing with the language barriers by providing extra language classes and setting up Comtor/BrSE (in the case of Japan’s market).

 

 

4. Cost Optimize By IT Outsourcing Vietnam

Asia-Pacific is one of the ideal destinations for businesses looking for software outsourcing services as it offers cost optimization by 40% when comparing with other regions such as Eastern Europe and North Africa. However, even in the same region, we can also see the IT pricing gaps between Vietnam and the rest.

The price to hire an offshore software developer in Vietnam ranges from $10-$25/ hour, while in China it is $18-$50/ hour (for junior level). Other countries in Southeast Asia have a higher salary base, with Thailand’s average salary ranges from $13-$40/ hour, Philippines’ is $17.5-$42.5/ hour.

Regarding the infrastructure cost, Vietnam ranks 12th in the world, 6th in Asia, and 1st in Southeast Asia in terms of low internet service rates. Average users in Vietnam spend US$11.27 (equivalent to VND260,000) for a month on the Internet connection. The average monthly cost of broadband Internet in Vietnam was US$12.4, much cheaper than in Thailand (US$25.9), Indonesia (US$32.5), Malaysia (US$34.9), and the Philippines (US$51.1).

Office leasing cost in Vietnam holds a relatively low price, as the average price is $15/m2/month, 20% lower than that of other Asia-Pacific countries.

 

You may interest: South East Asia Software Testing Engineer Salary

 

5. Great Government Policies for IT Company In Vietnam

Prior to 2018, technology did not receive much of the government’s focus, but since 2018, many laws, initiatives and policies have been imposed to form the legal frameworks for technology development in Vietnam.

– On 24 December 2020, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 2205/QD-TTg approving the Intellectual Property Development Program led by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The general objective of the Program is to utilize intellectual property as an important tool to improve the national competitiveness, create an environment inducive to innovation, and promote economic, cultural and social development.

– Vietnam’s Law on Cybersecurity includes data localization, government control over online content, and setting up local offices in Vietnam. This helps clients from all over the world stay protected under the law of Vietnam.

In light of the recent policies, Vietnam has shown its efforts in protecting technology businesses and their clients, hence leveraging the country’s capability to become a global software outsourcing leader.

In conclusion, Vietnam software outsourcing services offer great values thanks to the strong IT workforce, competitive labor price, and supportive government policies, making this country the go-to destination for foreign businesses.

 

 

About Lotus QA

Lotus QA is passionate about bringing young, talented, and skillful Vietnamese to the global market by helping clients in their digital transformation process.

We commit to being an effective quality partner for Vietnam software outsourcing. Working with us, you can focus on your business and leave it to us. We will always focus on what are our client’s business goals and all of their quality aspects. By understanding these, we commit to bringing value by helping our client meet their quality needs at the lowest cost.

Contact Lotus QA at to know more about how we can help you in software development in Vietnam:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

As the talent shortage is becoming increasingly alarming, IT workers are now given a huge opportunity in the technology space. In stark contrast, businesses now have to constantly improve their IT recruitment strategy to stand out in the employer market. One vital IT recruitment strategy for talented workers to choose a business is employer branding.

Employer branding is a big concept that includes marketing, business development and HR departments. But when it comes to IT recruitment, we have to take a new and further approach to successfully build an employer brand.

 

What is employer branding?

Employer branding is the process of promoting a company, and in this case, is to attract and retain IT talents.

In a way, your employer brand is the embodiment of what you want your current and potential employees to have about your business. To accomplish employer branding, businesses are to build company’s values, work culture and personality that align with the aspirations of their candidates.

Another term that you should also know about employer branding is the employee value proposition. This term refers to the benefits that one candidate might receive from their employer in return for their skills and dedication.

 

 

Employer branding is a long-term investment that requires a lot of work, but it can be paid off with great results for the recruitment process which will eventually enhance the business’ staff proficiency and work productivity.

For the IT workforce specifically, employer brand is the foremost factor that might impact which company to apply to. For example, a modern workplace with young and dynamic activities to boost up team morale is always the prioritized work destination. Or an authentic and positive employer brand will always stand out among the choices of IT candidates.

For some HR professionals, the term “employment branding” and “recruitment marketing” is used interchangeably, but there is a slight difference that you should know. While “employment branding” is the image of how you want your candidate to perceive your business, “recruitment marketing” is how you can deliver that image to your current and potential IT candidate/staff.

 

The role of employer branding in recruitment

IT recruitment is not as easy as you might think it be. In fact, it takes the efforts of multiple departments to accomplish a successful recruitment campaign. As long-term and tedious as it is, employer branding is still the most effective and easy way to boost up your recruitment process.

 

 

The IT recruitment market 10 years ago was much easier than today’s as the demand and the supply of IT talent are equal. In contrast, job openings in the IT industry are unfortunately forecasted to outgrow the number of IT workers in 2025. Hence, the competition for businesses to impress the available candidates is tenser than ever.

With a strong employer brand, businesses have the chance to “showcase” the best features they have to attract candidates. For example, instead of running ads campaigns to raise the forced impressions of the job openings, what HR specialists have to do is to wait on the candidates to apply for the job (consider that the job is suitable for them).

 

Strategic guide of employer branding for IT recruitment

The real question for businesses to answer when it comes to employer branding is “How does your employer brand stand out?”. Recruitment strategists should also know which channel and the schedule to promote their employer brand.

You should follow the following guide for a strategic approach for your IT recruitment process.

• Know your organization strategy/identity
• Know your strengths and what makes you stand out
• Build employee value propositions
• Plans for recruitment marketing for potential candidates

Know your organization strategy/identity

Organization identity is a conceptual definition of what your business embodies and represents. In today’s world, as IT workers have more chances to choose their employer, they are more likely to seek in the workplace that matches their personality and aspirations.

 

 

If your business hasn’t decided what its identity is, business leaders should sit down and clear out the features that best describe your organization and more importantly, what would make you stand out in the very competitive IT recruitment market.

To further streamline employer brand and candidates’ aspirations, you should answer these questions:

• What are the most common values among your colleagues?
• What makes your company’s culture special?
• What are the values your company stands for? Another important aspect of your organizational identity is your story.

 

Know your strengths and what makes you stand out

Normally, for a company to analyze its strengths and stand-out point, the board of directors has to go through a SWOT analysis, including a thorough look into the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. For a recruitment scenario, we should also apply this analysis, but only on how to improve the employer branding in hiring.

To know your strengths, employers have to rethink the internal and positive attributes of your company. What has been the image that your company follows since day one? What assets does your business provide to the employees that might attract them? What competitive advantages do you have over your competitors?

 

 

The employers have to ask the equivalent questions to find out in the eyes of your employees and potential candidates, what are the things that they might find uninviting about your business.

About Threats and Opportunities, you have to know all of the external factors that can affect your business operations. Is it about your location? Is it about the gaps between members of your teams.

All of the 4 factors cannot be deducted from meetings or internal review. What you need to dig deep into is the actual responses from your employees, your candidates or even your lost candidates. Try to acquire a survey from these, and you can know the candidate’s perspective to pivot if necessary.

 

Build employee value propositions

An Employee Value Proposition is a set of benefits that the employees receive during their work at your business. Besides the obvious advantage of giving the best benefits for the employees, the EVP also embodies the motivation for them to work there.

EVP varies among businesses, but to make your business stand out in the hiring market, you have to build a unique, relevant and compelling set of values. For some job seekers, EVP is the most important feature as it shows the culture and work visions.

After building an EVP, you need to promote its on multiple social platforms, including websites, social media channels to let people know what you are pursuing in the long run.

 

Plans for recruitment marketing for potential candidates

Some might mistake that IT candidates only look for jobs online, but actually, you can have some effective offline approach for a better recruitment campaign. Let’s take a look at how we can do it both online and offline.

For online marketing

Online marketing is all about the first impression. To achieve good reach to potential candidates, you might wanna try these:

• Build a trendy and modern recruitment website. Once a potential candidate lands on your website, they will want to find the information about your company and job openings fast, as well as submit their application effortlessly. That is why your website needs to be perfectly optimized and user-friendly. Don’t bombard your visitors with ads or popups, the website needs to be as “clean” and professional as possible. Pages like “About us”, “Vision and mission” should be available.
• Build strategic content by leveraging AI tools (including content writing, images, and AI edit video, etc). You should attract visitors through high-quality video content, social networks, and SEO. Additionally, place forms in reasonable positions to acquire candidate information without bombarding them with ads and pop-ups.
• Make good use of Brand Advocates. With brand avocates, you can ask your current employees to speak about the company on social platforms. Make sure that these employees need to be passionate about their job at your company.

 

For offline marketing

One viable approach for offline marketing in IT recruitment is through events. You can be the organizer or the benefactor.

 

Employer branding can’t be done in one day. Many business leaders have to seek for other options to hire as quick as possible, and one of them is the IT recruitment services. If you’re in need, don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

Perhaps your company has long utilized training for a hybrid work environment, in which there is a mix of remote and in-office workers, or maybe you find yourself having to support a full remote workplace. Whatever the case may be, here are the 5 best remote working tools for communication and management.

 

Prepare yourself for these 5 common remote work communication challenges

 

Why do we need remote working tools?

Remote working tools are more important than ever as it cal help people work remotely effectively, regardless of the location. These tools may refer to the communication and networking systems, including video chat applications or messaging tools, cloud storage, task and project management systems, remote team management apps, etc. There are plenty of remote working tools for you to choose with hundreds of applications.

The outstanding feature of every remote working tool is that it has a wide range of integrations with other tools, making it very easy to use and facilitate remote cooperation. The onboarding of new employees should be seamless with good remote working software too.

 

What are the most used and effective remote working tools?

In this article, we will provide you with the top 5 most used and effective remote working tools. Each of these tools has its pros and cons, and before rushing in anything, you can always try out the trial version to understand it from your own perspective.

 

Trello – Web-based, Kanban-style, List-making application

Trello is a very popular and familiar application for task management and list-making. This tool is built with Kanban Style which categorizes your tasks into different groups, hence team members can keep track of what has been done, what is being done and what to be done.

 

 

Imagine your dashboard as an old-school whiteboard for management with Trello. This is considered the perfect choice for all of your project management needs. With Kanban principles, it is easier for you to visualize teamwork from every angle and more importantly, it is easier to move projects forward and make room for priorities.

This remote working tool is used by thousands of businesses every day, and it continues to prove its help when remote working is on the rise.

When using Trello, you don’t have to worry about potential miscommunication as it builds a robust and seamless workflow.

 

Slack – Proprietary business communication platform

Slack is another popular remote working tool trusted by many businesses, especially those in the IT sector.

What makes Slack special is the way it can provide an easy-to-use chat/channel communication tool that can keep everyone connected with a user-friendly interface.

 

 

For example, it’s easy to create “channels” (equivalent to a group chat room). However, if you don’t set clear team communication boundaries, it can lead to the overwhelming number of conversations for team members to keep up with.

Slack allows users to integrate the operations with other products such as G-Suite, Dropbox, Adobe Creative Cloud, and so on.

Slack bots are very work-supportive as it can boost morale by giving birthday reminders and team reports.

With all of these features, it is hard to imagine a remote team that is communicating without using Slack. You can install Slack on your PC or your mobile to work on it wherever and whenever.

In late 2020, Slack was acquired by Salesforce, giving them a larger foundation to compete with Microsoft Teams, which is another chat app and video conferencing tool. Slack is expected to add more features to support virtual workspaces for better remote work communication.

 

 

 

Asana – Workplace management tool for better communication

Asana is a customizable workplace content management system (CMS) that is designed to help a wide range of companies achieve their organizational needs. More plainly, it’s an advanced organizational tool to help streamline projects.

Asana is made so that workplaces of any size can analyze their progress and address issues all in one place, eliminating the need for constant meetings, email updates, and memos.

 

 

Asana has a wide range of features available to help companies and the teams find a system to get things done as efficiently as possible.

Asana’s main feature is its project and task management tools. You can create lists or boards to host certain projects as a whole — these will detail all the initiatives, meetings, and programs involved in said projects.

From there, you can break these projects into tasks and subtasks to make them more manageable, and list the steps to complete them.

 

Confluence – Remote-Friendly Team Workspace

Confluence is a team workspace that supports knowledge/documentation sharing and collaboration. With dynamic pages, team members can give idea to create, capture and collaborate on any project or idea. With Confluence, it is easier and more effective for you to structure, organize and share work.

Team members also have visibility to institutional knowledge and access to the information they need for their work.

 

 

Some of the outstanding features of Confluence includes:

• Powerful collaborative editor that allows you to create meeting notes, project plans, product requirements in real-time.
• Accelerated feedback loop with inline comments on pages and files attached.
• Templates for daily reports and documentations.
• Edit attached files with the apps on your desktop (Cloud only): It lets you open files stored in Confluence with your desktop apps and edit them, then automatically re-uploads the updated version to Confluence. Now you can get feedback on that preso, edit it in Powerpoint, and have it back on Confluence in no time.
• Can provide feedback directly on your files (images, PDFs, spreadsheets, and presentations) and it keeps track of versions automatically, so you’re always working on the right one.
• Collaborate from anywhere: You can sync your confluence with your iOS or Android device and work from anywhere. You can track team activity, give feedback, and stay in sync between mobile and desktop.
• Organized workspaces: In Confluence, you can create a space for every team, department, or major project to share information and keep work organized.
• Page and file versioning: You can track every version and change that you make to a page. Files are automatically versioned.

 

Zoom – Video conferencing for smooth communication

Zoom is a video conferencing tool that is exceptionally lightweight and integrates directly into Google Calendar.

Even though it does have options for messaging, Zoom is mostly known for its high-quality video calling.

With a free plan, you can get 40 minutes’ worth of conference time. And with a pro plan, you are entitled to much more, including webinar hosting features, which can be great for your online marketing efforts.

 

 

One of the features that users find most useful is video recordings. You can use these recordings to create educational videos or document common procedures.

The 5 remote working tools mentioned above are the most popular ones that have been developed long ago for IT project management. With the pandemic forcing businesses to implement remote work, these tools have become more useful than ever.

If you’re still wondering how to achieve the most effective way for remote work communication, you can contact us to talk to one of our experts in this matter.

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance

The New Normal amid the Covid pandemic makes remote work on the rise, asking businesses and employers to implement remote communication best practices to master the new virtual workplace. More than half of the asked IT leaders indicated that communication is the most pressing challenge in remote worker management.

So, a question for every business manager, CIO, or even CEO is how to implement remote communication methods in their operations and have creative ways to collaborate with remote employees.

In this article, we will discuss the remote communication best practices in 5 different aspects:

• Remote work management
• How to communicate when working remotely
• Device management for effective communication
• Remote work environment
• Training when working remote

Also read: 5 common remote work communication challenges

 

1. Remote work management

The first and foremost aspect that every manager wants to ask about remote work communication best practices is management. Management used to be task allocation, monitoring and administration, etc. With a co-located team, managers can easily track cues to indicate the communication issues and fix them. In contrast, a remote team works off the screen, prompting challenges for the managers.

From a place of having physical and emotional contact, managers now have little to no direct interaction with their employees. From a place of easy-to-manage work platforms such as Skype or Excel spreadsheets, managers are required to implement some of the tools and approaches to achieve remote work communication best practices.

Cloud project management tools

With remote communication, managers want to increase their involvement in how the task is done by the team members. With the fear of the employees abandoning their posts and losing focus on the job, some managers implement extreme measures of hourly reports and micro-managing.

Well, this is not a very “healthy” approach for management. Rather than impose unreasonable rules on the staff, many managers have come to the cloud project management tools such as Trello or Asana.

These tools have proven their productivity in managing tasks within projects as it can split the work into smaller tasks. For every task, staff can add details, deadlines, to-do lists, etc.

Some of these also support calendar sharing and file sharing, creating a very convenient and straightforward work environment.

Another great thing about these managing tools is to push notifications. When the task dues, when the sub-tasks should be completed to keep up with the overall plan, etc. are all integrated upon customization.

 

 

 

No more micro-managing

It is challenging to control remote teams when the managers can’t go and see what their staff are doing. Many of them try to contact team members numerous times a day to manage and assess their work. Still, successful remote work is not limited to the result of one project. It is also about how you encourage members and not bombard them with calls and emails.

Micro-managing was never an effective approach for management in the long run. And the overuse of this can lead to team members feeling like they’re not trusted. To omit micro-managing from your system, try to come to management platforms to get what your staff is doing.

KPI Clarification

For any projects, especially IT ones, the schedule, progress, requirement, and KPIs must be clarified.

Agreement in schedule and progress should be built based on:

• Your project release plan or business plan
• The estimation of team leaders of how much work their staff can do

For requirements and KPI, they should be based on the projects’ goals and objectives. KPIs can vary greatly with different projects. They include but are not limited to:

• Response time measures the time for the tech team to respond to bugs and defects
• Product backlog indicates the number of tasks expected to be done
• Schedule compliance measures the ability to follow the predesigned plans.

2. How to communicate when working remotely

The methods which businesses use to communicate with their teammates should also be changed to successfully communicate with a remote team.

Use video conferencing

Perhaps the most fundamental way to improve remote work communication is to switch to video calls. It can also help improve the performance of your remote team.

As there are 3 types of distances in a remote team, including Physical (physical and time distance), Operational (skill level differences), and Affinity (shared value and trust differences).

With any of these types, face-to-face contact can help connect the team member through emotional bonds. With pictures of emotions and attitudes transferred through, a sense of familiarity and bonding is formed. Instead of dull screens, team members have the tendency to involve more in the conversation, hence a more effective way of communicating.

In a normal workplace, employees can face-to-face discuss with the managers his/her problems. However, in a remote work situation, this is impossible. For an employee, texting his employers is something very difficult, as they might think that texting is something more intimate that should come from friends and family.

In this case, the managers should be the one who encourages the one-on-one setting. With a familiar messaging tool such as Skype or Slack, this one-on-one chatting session can be very easy and effective.

Virtual “water cooler”

The term water cooler is used to refer to the time/place in which the team has a small hangout for them to talk about their personal lives. Of course, with a remote work setting, a “water cooler” time means video chatting for team members to keep up with each other’s lives.

It can be either a 30-minute session or it can be or more, and it should be conducted weekly.

3. Device management for best practices

For remote team communication best practices, managers should also contemplate device management to have effective communication.

For example, if you want your employees to stay connected through video calls, you have to make sure the mic and the webcam on their computer work. If they don’t work, what is your next action as the manager? What kind of allocation needed to provide the comprehensive tools for your staff to communicate? If you don’t have enough devices to allocate, what is your next action?

Get the answer to these questions, and you should keep in mind that to provide sufficient infrastructure for your staff is to provide a supportive remote work communication and environment.

Also read: 5 remote working tools for communication and management

4. Remote work environment

The emerging trends of remote work require managers to take serious measures to cope with the unprecedented change amid the pandemic. To take matters into your hands and operate a well-oiled machine, managers have to build a professional yet supporting remote work environment.

To achieve such an environment, the first thing to be done is the formation of remote work policy outlines. With a well-designed and robust workflow created by reasonable work policies, employers can further streamline and manage IT projects.

There’s one thing you should know about creating a remote work policy. This set of rules should go into detail about every aspect of remote work, including working hours, legal rights, and cybersecurity requirements. Other than that, the means of communication and how employees should communicate throughout the work-from-home process should be indicated clearly.

With a remote work policy on your hands, employers are still prone to many problems when implementing it. Whenever this happens, it is highly recommended that they should look back into what has been done and what could have been done to revamp the situation. Sitting down with your employees to figure out the right remote work environment is also a must.

Besides setting a remote work policy, employers should also be open more to flexibility. Your employees have the right to work in the hours that work best for them. Flexible working hours, objective-oriented management, and virtual team-building activities are the factors that can contribute to supportive remote work communication.

5. Training when working remotely

To provide sufficient and comprehensive knowledge for employees, even when working from home, employers have to contemplate training in their preparation.
Training, in this case, not only means technical training but also system-scale training. By that, we meant the training of procedures, working process, and how to communicate effectively in a remote team.

To transfer knowledge from one staff to another, the employers should conduct regular training on both technical, mindset and work process aspects. There should be also a checkpoint test to ensure team members can understand the knowledge.

Communication in a remote team doesn’t have to be as overwhelming or all-consuming as it used to be. To achieve remote work communication best practices, you should focus on the management, method of communication, device for communication, training for communication and remote work environment.

If you want to talk to an expert for advice and tips for communicating successfully with remote teams, you can contact us via:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance