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HR tools from the cloud
With modern HR tools, small and medium-sized companies can digitalize their HR work. This speeds up HR processes and frees employees from time-consuming routine work.
Regardless of whether it is the automotive industry, the service industry or IT: the functional requirements for HR software are almost the same in every industry and regardless of the size of the company. Such universally applicable human resources management solutions are predestined for the cloud. It is therefore no surprise that cloud-based business applications for payroll, time management, applicant management and talent management are becoming increasingly popular.
No wonder, then, that the HR market is also booming in Germany. This emerges from the current HR software business survey among leading HR solution providers, which was carried out by the Wolfgang Witte Economic Institute. As in 2015 and 2016, according to the study, sales of SaaS tools (Software as a Service) achieved by far the strongest growth in 2017. The international analyst firm Roland Berger confirms the trend. The German HR software market is expected to reach a value of 1.7 billion euros by 2020. 86 percent of this growth will be driven by the transition to cloud-based solutions, the analysts continued.
Small and medium-sized companies play a central role as growth drivers. Because they are increasingly investing in software solutions that support HR processes far better than Excel and the rudimentary office tools. The range of simple and cost-effective HR tools that specifically target small and medium-sized companies is still quite manageable compared to other business software segments such as customer management, collaboration or accounting. But you can now find a whole range of professional cloud services on the German market that are tailored precisely to your needs. These enable HR departments to accelerate daily administrative and strategic processes, work better as a team and do their jobs more efficiently. According to Roland Berger analysts, HR tools that focus on administrative tasks (such as payroll, vacation planning or time recording) are now used significantly more frequently among German companies than strategic solutions. But cloud systems that support companies with recruiting, talent management and other HR functions have higher growth rates than operational HR tools, the analysts emphasize.
Companies that are still at the very beginning when it comes to digitizing HR work can either rely on all-in-one solutions or concentrate on a specific functional area and use lightweight HR tools for specific areas of responsibility. One tool could be used for recruiting, another for talent management, and another for payroll. Tools that use this so-called “best of breed” approach are cost-effective and easy to implement. The big disadvantage of this approach is that the integration and collaboration of different solutions is not easy in practice – quite the opposite. To avoid data redundancies or complicated integrations, many companies opt for all-in-one solutions. These holistic suites bring together various functional modules and offer users a unified, consistent user experience across departmental boundaries. This in turn can increase user acceptance of the newly introduced solution because employees do not have to be familiar with and find their way around different systems.
The price of gold reached record levels in the spring. Investors are primarily looking for protection against inflation in the precious metal.
Imagine a metal block that is the size of a two-story house – and made of pure gold: This is how big the German gold treasure is (edge length: 8.6 meters) if you were to combine the entire holdings of private households and the Bundesbank into one large one Melt cubes together. It would be worth more than 750 billion euros (gold price as of January 29, 2024).
Germans are hoarding more than 9,000 tons of gold, a study by Reisebank shows. Around 40 percent of German citizens (aged 18 and over) use the precious metal in the form of bars or coins as a physical store of value. Gold is particularly popular as a stable investment in times of inflation. Bars and coins hoarded by private households account for 5,229 tonnes. The remaining 3,805 tons are gold jewelry, and another 3,353 tons belong to the Bundesbank (as of December 31, 2023).
On average, investors invest 4,764 euros in gold. Even among stock loving Gen Z, , i.e. people born between 1995 and 2012, the precious metal is very popular: 37.8 percent bought gold in 2023 – that is a significantly higher proportion than the average population (15.4 percent). . However, they apparently have less money available than the general public: on average, people from Gen Z invest “only” 1,620 euros. In addition, the young investors place more value on the sustainable origin of the gold than the rest of the investors – they also spend more money on this.
According to the Reisebank survey, those who buy gold as an investment primarily want to protect themselves from inflation (38 percent). The fear of high or rising inflation has risen to over 70 percent among those surveyed – in the previous year it was “only” 46 percent. But preservation of value (36 percent), the real physical value (31 percent) and aesthetics (28 percent) are also important to investors when buying gold.
Given the current high prices for gold, one might expect more people to sell their gold treasures again now. However, the travel bank study shows that purchases and sales are currently balanced.
In the past, anyone who ordered something from Amazon but wanted to return the item was able to take their time. In most cases the return period was 30 days. This has now changed for some articles. This is what you need to know about it.
If you buy something online, you can usually return the goods to the seller within 14 days and without giving any reasons. This is regulated by the right of withdrawal. Amazon has even better conditions so far. In most cases, customers have 30 days to return items to the mail order company. However, Amazon has drastically reduced this deadline for some items. This emerged from in March .
14 day return period from April 25th at the latest
For items purchased from March 25, 2024, Amazon is shortening the return period for customers from 30 to 14 days in the following categories,” it reads there. The period starts with delivery of the product. After all, not all categories are affected. The new regulation applies to cameras, office supplies, computers, video games, music, electronics and the video/DVD sector. There are also exceptions. Amazon’s own hardware and Amazon Renewed products are excluded. You can view the return period directly on the respective product page. If you buy an iPad, you have 14 days to return it; for an Amazon Fire tablet it remains at 30 days.
The popularity of chatbots is on the rise as businesses and individuals recognize their potential to streamline communication, enhance customer experiences, and automate repetitive tasks. With advancements in artificial intelligence and natural language processing, chatbots are becoming more sophisticated and capable of engaging in meaningful conversations with users. From customer service and support to sales and marketing, chatbots are being deployed across various industries to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and deliver personalized interactions. As chatbot technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even greater adoption and integration into everyday life, transforming how we interact with technology and each other.
- OpenAI’s GPT-3: Similar to ChatGPT, GPT-3 is a powerful language model developed by OpenAI, capable of generating human-like text across various tasks and topics.
- Microsoft’s Xiaoice: Developed by Microsoft, Xiaoice is a popular chatbot in China known for its conversational abilities and emotional intelligence. It has been used in various applications, including customer service and virtual companionship.
- Google’s Meena: Meena is a chatbot developed by Google that aims to engage in more natural and open-ended conversations with users. It utilizes advanced natural language processing techniques to generate contextually relevant responses.
- Facebook’s BlenderBot: BlenderBot is a chatbot developed by Facebook AI Research that integrates conversational skills with knowledge retrieval capabilities. It can engage in multi-turn conversations and provide informative responses on a wide range of topics.
- Rasa: Rasa is an open-source conversational AI platform that allows developers to build and deploy chatbots and virtual assistants. It provides tools for natural language understanding, dialogue management, and integration with messaging platforms.
- IBM’s Watson Assistant: Watson Assistant is a chatbot platform developed by IBM that enables businesses to build and deploy AI-powered virtual assistants for customer support, sales, and other use cases. It offers pre-built templates and integration with IBM’s cloud services.
- Amazon Lex: Amazon Lex is a chatbot service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows developers to build conversational interfaces for applications using voice and text. It powers Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant and supports integration with other AWS services.
- Dialogflow: Dialogflow is a conversational AI platform developed by Google that enables developers to build and deploy chatbots and virtual agents across multiple channels, including websites, mobile apps, and messaging platforms.
- Pandorabots: Pandorabots is a chatbot development platform that provides tools for building and deploying AI-powered virtual agents for customer service, marketing, and entertainment purposes. It offers customizable chatbot templates and integration with popular messaging platforms.
- Chatfuel: Chatfuel is a chatbot-building platform that allows users to create AI-powered chatbots for Facebook Messenger and other messaging platforms without coding. It offers a visual interface for designing conversational flows and integration with third-party services.
These are just a few examples of chatbots and conversational AI platforms available today, each with its own unique features and capabilities.
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