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Lisa C. Townes

Difference between Business Analyst and Project Manager

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An organization can have both a business analyst and a project manager separately. But depending on the size of the organization, the same person can also play both roles. If you are among those who are evaluating career paths these days, then you may be confused between a business analyst and a project manager. It’s a point at which most people get confused and are also not aware of the responsibilities of both.

A Business Analyst

is one who works in all the possible ways of improving the services of the business through data analysis. Not just the services, but it also works to maintain the processes, products, and software. The business analysts improve efficiency by making a bridge to link the information technology department and the business.

Responsibilities of a Business Analyst

The business analysts work by creating new models to support the business by interacting with the information technology teams. A business analyst must have wide experience in forecasting and budgeting. Plus, he should know regulatory and reporting requirements.

His job description includes,

  • Budgeting
  • Forecasting
  • Creating business analysis
  • Planning
  • Monitoring
  • Reporting
  • Pricing
  • Defining the business requirements

Skills A Business Analyst Must Have

A business analyst must have both soft and hard skills. If one doesn’t have an IT background, no worries. He must know about the working of systems and tools. Here are some of the main skills that a business analyst must have,

  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Consultative Skills
  • Oral And Written Communication
  • Organizational Skills
  • Facilitation Skills
  • Information About Business Structure
  • Process Modelling
  • Stakeholder Analysis
  • Costs Benefit Analysis
  • Knowledge About Databases And Networks
  • Analytical Thinking

A Project Manager

A project manager is one who plans, monitors, executes, and controls the whole project. They play the main role in monitoring the project scope, resources, and team. And most importantly, the success or failure of the project. Moreover, a project manager makes the goals of the project and uses skills to inspire the team by sharing the purpose and goal of the project. You can follow this guide to be a project manager.

Responsibilities Of A Project Manager

Creating the initiation document of the project is the main point about the responsibilities of a project manager. In the initiation document, the project manager has to cover the risks, business objectives, scope, and assumptions related to that project. Moreover, the project manager creates and updates all the project activities. Reporting the project health and status regularly to the committee members is also included in the responsibilities of the project manager.

If there comes any kind of challenge or risk related to a project, then solving that issue is also the responsibility of the manager handling the project. The project manager has to keep an eye on the team to check that they are working together or not. Plus, he also supports the team members in stakeholder engagement activities related to specific expertise.

Here are some other responsibilities,

  • Coordinating Staff
  • Leading Project Planning Sessions
  • Ensuring the Project meet deadlines
  • Designing the Risk Mitigation Plan
  • Managing the Large Teams
  • Optimizing the Overall Approach
  • Managing Relationships With Clients
  • Overseeing all the Incoming as well as Outgoing Project Documentation

Skills A Project Manager Must Have

Apart from the responsibilities, here we have mentioned some of the skills which a project manager must have to work professionally. Have a look at these skills.

  • Leadership
  • Policy Knowledge
  • Budget Management
  • Technical Writing
  • Team Management
  • Risk Management
  • Conflict Management
  • Project Management Methodologies
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Research Skills

Why Does It Matters Much If Roles Of These Two Are Defined In A Project Or Not?

In most of the projects, the roles and the boundaries are not specified thus a confusion remains between these two. But why must there be clarification between these two? Why is clarifying the roles of these two necessary?

After having a detailed note on the responsibilities and roles of a business analyst along with a project manager, you must know why does it matter if the roles of these two are fully defined or not.

Project Productivity

One of the main reasons to define project roles is project productivity. At a small level, a small business may work fully well without clearly defining the responsibilities of a project manager and a business analyst. But when you have moved your business to a large scale then you won’t get a successful outcome without clearly defining the roles and responsibilities. So clarifying the roles and responsibilities matter much in getting better productivity.

Professionalism Of Your Work

Another important reason to clearly define the role of the business analyst and business manager is professionalism. When the roles are defined, the business analyst and project managers will pay keen interest in their tasks thus, they will attain professionalism in their respective work. So better define their roles to make them fully professional.

What Makes Project Managers and Business Analysts Appear So Related To Each Other?

By reading all the above points about project managers and business analysts, one may feel some similarities between the two. But still, there are many main differential points between them. Both play a role in the growth of their organization. The project managers are those who play the main role in the context of already assigned projects from their organization. And the business analysts play a role as individual contributors.

Here are a few factors which favor that at some places the role of both needed to get mixed,

  • The project is small but the budget is limited
  • The project assigned is small with an experienced team to work but individuals are capable of performing different roles
  • The risks which are associated with the assigned project are low

Apart from the main differential responsibilities, there are many other roles due to which the main difference between both the project manager and business analyst gets blurred. So once you have an understanding of the differences between the two, you can never mix up the responsibilities of these two.

Change Management VS Project Management

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Often people get confused between project management and change management. They both have a significant role in meeting organizational goals but they are entirely different disciplines. Understanding the differences between project and change management and how they work in harmony to manage projects is crucial to the success of any organization.

What is Project Management?

Project management is the application of skills, knowledge, techniques, and tools to fulfill a project’s requirements. In simple words, project management is a process essential to bring a team or organization from Point A to Point B.

To conduct project management, project managers and their teams work in five main project stages:

  • Initiating
  • Planning
  • Executing
  • Monitoring
  • Review

The stage-by-stage distribution of a project helps the managers organize the haphazard tasks into a sequence to strategically drive the project forward.

What is Change Management?

While project management implies controlling the processes and activities required for the completion of a project, change management relates to the people or human resources involved in that project.

Successful completion of projects is crucial to the development of any organization and its stakeholders. Therefore project and change management work together to ensure a project’s long-term success.

Difference between Change Management and Project Management in Tabular form

Though change and project management are inseparable, we have tried to enlist a few specific differences among both of these disciplines.

DifferencesChange ManagementProject Management
GuidelinesNo standard guidelinesWell documented guidelines
Formal ProcessesLess formal processesMore formal process
TimelinesNo concrete timelineA specific timeline
FocusFocus on peopleFocus on systems and technical processes
Controls:It controls the impact of change occurring as a result of organizational and project development.It controls the activities of a project that are essential to meet the specific goals and objectives.

Change management works alongside project management as it supports the human side of the process.

Change Management

Change management signifies adoption. It revolves around the people aspects of the change with the goal of having a significant number of people who are committed to the change involved. It includes learning new behaviors and implementing them willingly.

Project Management

Project management signifies installation. It revolves around plans and timelines which aim at moving from a current state to a future state.

Change Managers VS. Project Managers

Change managers play their role in preparing people for accepting change. They focus on understanding the changes that an organization undergoes and then play their role in developing awareness and desire for these changes in the people.

Project managers are required to manage the budget, time, quality, and scope. Good project managers are expected to make a forward momentum towards achieving the goals. They have to develop mitigation and contingency plans.

Intent

Change management is directed towards assuring that the employees in the organization accept, adopt and utilize the prospects of change.

Project Management is directed towards assuring that the method of implementation is designed, developed, and executed in an effective way to achieve the organization’s goals.

How Success is Analyzed

In change management success is analyzed by measuring the behavior of people in response to the change elements including:

  • Speed of adoption by the intended employees
  • The utilization of change by the intended employees
  • Proficiency of the intended employees
  • The measurement of results and outcomes in relation with individuals

In Project Management success is measured by judging the technical or physical side of change in response to the elements including:

  • Timely completion
  • Completion within budget
  • Meets the criteria for all technical requirements
  • The results and outcomes are nearly what was expected

Conclusion

Both change management and project management contribute to a successful change in an organization. Though they are different in terms of focus and approach, they both are crucial for moving people and projects from one transition state to the other future state. Thus they both are an indispensable part of an organization’s growth and development.

Importance of Project Life Cycle

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The world has been discovering better management techniques because of limited time and increased workload on individuals. Much work has been done to identify how management can be improved in an individual’s life and an organization.

In researching better management techniques, the project life cycle has been studied to ensure that each project can be structured, monitored, managed, and finished successfully for saving time, cost, and limited resources.

What is Project Lifecycle?

The project life cycle is the breakdown of a project into different stages for better management and results. Project lifecycle has gained maximum popularity over the last few decades because of the successful results it has been generating in terms of results, quality, and cost control.

The project lifecycle starts from the initial stage of brainstorming a project and ends once the project gets completed and is handed over to the authority who has assigned the project.

The project life cycle differs from project to project. It has the most important for a successful task as it rightly breaks down a project and subtasks associated with it, which helps properly manage the project and improve results.

Phases of the Project Life Cycle

A project life cycle is divided into five phases, from brainstorming to completion. The work done in five stages are:

1.      Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the stage before starting a project in which a project, its nature, the vision, scope, and stakeholders are identified. The project’s importance and relevancy are checked in this stage to ensure that no time is lost by starting a wrong project.

2.      Planning

Once brainstorming has been done, and the project and its objectives are identified, the next step in the project lifecycle is planning. In this phase, all the planning related to a project, the subtasks associated with it, the project’s schedule, the budget, risk, the completion date, and milestones are all predetermined for smooth working on a project.

Planning is a crucial phase in which the overall project and its approach are discussed. Alternative plans are also finalized in this phase to avoid any failure of the project.

3.      Execution

Dependent upon the previous phase, the next stage of a project lifecycle is execution. In this step, all the resources are utilized to work on the planned project based upon the schedule and guidelines.

The step is performed following the planning phase, and each step is linked to the planned schedule to ensure that risks and costs are minimized and the project is done as planned and expected.

4.      Monitoring

The next phase of a project life cycle is monitoring. The phase continues throughout the project so that the project is outclassed in terms of quality, reduced cost, and minimal risk.

The phase compares planning and execution stages to analyze what needs to be improved, which step requires more employees’ efforts, and how time can be balanced between tasks for expected results.

5.      Completion

The last phase of the project life cycle is complete. In this phase, the project is announced completed, and a report has been issued to identify how the overall project went and how successful the project life cycle was.

The stage highlights the difference between budgeted cost and actual cost and the difference between the dates for completion and the completion date.

Importance of the Project Life Cycle

The project life cycle has significant importance in assuring the delivery of a quality project on time with budgeted cost and minimal risk.

The project life cycle helps better manage a project, which is crucial in assuring successful results for a given task. The importance of project life cycle includes:

·         Structure a Project

Better structuring of a project helps in better monitoring and better results. With a project life cycle, one can divide the project into several stages, making the structure easier to understand and monitor.

The employees know which task to perform, and the management knows when to expect completion of a sub-task of the project, which enhances the project’s overall efficiency.

·         Better Communication

With the better structuring and planning of a project, the project life cycle helps in better communication between employees and management. The employees know in advance which tasks to perform on which date and when to complete them.

Similarly, the management knows when and what to expect from each employee and when to motivate them to uplift their work, which helps in better communication and better results between employees and management.

·         Helps in Tracking Progress

Project lifecycle has the most importance in progress tracking. With the task’s divisions and prior finalization of schedule and cost, the project life cycle helps evaluate how competitive project work has been going with planning and where the pace is required, or cost-cutting is essential.

Tracking helps complete a project as planned, which helps finish the project with the required resources and cost. Before the project life cycle, projects exceeded their budgeted cost, and risks related to a project were not identified. After the project life cycle, the projects are not only completed in a predetermined time but they are completed in allocated cost and resources, which helped in savings for the authority of the project.

·         Helps in Better Project Management

The project life cycle has great importance in terms of managing a project. It helps in managing the project time, cost, resources, and efforts of employees. With the use of the project life cycle, each aspect of a project is identified and planned initially, which helps strategize each sub-task at a low cost.

Project management has improved as employees predetermined their tasks, and when they complete the task on a pre-decided deadline, the cost and resources are indirectly appropriately managed.

·         Helps in Cost Controlling

With the completion of tasks as planned and allocated resources, the project life cycle helps in cost controlling a project. When projects get delayed, their cost and resource usage increase. The project life cycle holds great importance as it makes sure that the project is completed as strategized by the management that helps in cost controlling as the project is completed within the decided resources.

Final Thoughts

The project life cycle is of great importance for project management and better project results. The life cycle has been used widely for project planning and completing a project because of its colossal significance. To improve the project life cycle, many software has been designed to help track the project’s performance and maximize the project life cycle application.

What Are Different Leadership Styles In Project Management?

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The human mind needs a specific time to learn a new skill. It may be a duration of a few days or a few months to get a grip on a skill. If you are willing to start a career as a project manager, you must have some basic skill set and style to meet the challenging career.

If you take too much time getting this skill, you may have to say goodbye to the new project or even your whole team. This is so because you will be working so slow for your team and the project timings.

Moreover, you won’t get any two projects similar to apply the same tricks in both. You cannot use the same leadership style in all the projects and with all the teams. A good manager is always one who knows where to use which skill. Here’s a guide to let you know how managers can become leaders.

To have a high grip on the skill of project management leadership, we are going to provide you a few amazing leadership styles in project management. Stay with us and absorb maximum information from this content.

Few Plausible and Tenable Styles to Use in Project Management

Here are various leadership styles that will help you a lot in handling different situations differently. So you may not use the same technique for all the projects.

  • Coercive Leadership Style
  • Pacesetting Leadership Style
  • Authoritative Leadership Style
  • Affiliative Leadership Style
  • Coaching Leadership Style
  • Autocratic Leadership Style
  • Visionary Leadership Style
  • Transformational Leadership Style
  • Free-rein Leadership Style

Coercive Leadership Style

The coercive leadership style is used mostly by the project leaders and applied in crises. Particularly it’s used when there is a risk of missing the deadline for a project. If we simply summarize this style of management, it would not be wrong to say that “Do what I have ordered you.”

So if you have only one direction of communication, go for this leadership style of project management. In this style, the leader gives a direct order to the team and the whole team has to move according to order.

Pacesetting Leadership Style

The pacesetting leadership style is the one in which the leader models excellence with his already skilled team. But if the team is not already skilled or hardworking, this style won’t work for the best and quick results. Here the team members can easily achieve the goals even with less supervision.

It won’t be wrong if we sum up this style in one sentence saying, “Do it now, just like I am doing it.” Moreover, there are high standards in this style on which the team and the leader have to do work.

Authoritative Leadership Style

When the team is in search of a new idea and new vision, then an authoritative leadership style is best to use in such circumstances. The leader has the authority to run all the team members according to his plan. So it would not be wrong to summarize this style in one sentence saying, “Come with me in each step.”

Affiliative leadership style

Affiliative leadership style is one of the most common and effective styles used in project management. Choosing this style can make a complete impact on the team. In this style, the leader works in such a way that it creates an emotional bonding with the organization. Mainly this style of leadership is needed in stressed conditions at the workplace when all the team members require rebuilding the trust.

Initially, the leader comes to know about the input of all the members and then utilizes all the input to make the decisions about the project. Such leaders conduct various effective workshops to rebuild the team and to share the common goals for doing the project amazingly.

Coaching Leadership Style

The leader with the coaching leadership style plays a main role in long-term professional development for the team members. The team members come to know about their weakness as well as their strengths. By knowing about the weaknesses, the members are made aware of the goals of the projects.

But if you as a project manager lack any expertise in the projects, never go with this style. Not just this, but this style is also not suitable when the team members need much development. You won’t gain anything spending all your time on your team members to make them trained to apply this style of project management.

Autocratic Leadership Style

In this leadership style, the leader has complete authority. He has to just give instructions on which tasks have to be done. And how to complete all the tasks. The members cannot perform the tasks with their chosen methodologies but all these things should be completed according to the instructions of the leader.

Visionary Leadership Style

The leaders using this style provide long-term direction to all the team members. A new clear vision is provided to the team and all the members work according to that vision. It moves all the eyes and all the minds towards that specific vision. Visionary leaders are those who tell others to work according to a vision but they are those who present their creative vision. With this style, the members are encouraged to take initiative when they are facing any issues in the projects.

Transformational Leadership Style

The transformational leadership style works when the team is going through various changes. Like if the organization is changing its members then the leadership style the leader should opt for is the transformational leadership style. In these situations, this style will motivate the team and will give new ideas.

Free-rein Leadership Style

As the name suggests, the leader using this style has to just assign the task. The leaders do not guide the team about the methodology and the policy to be used in the project. The leader just makes the members aware of the period within which the project should be complete. The team members are free to use any methodology to complete the project within the deadline.

Wrapping Up

All the above-mentioned leadership styles have different benefits and they all have to be used at different places and in different conditions. To understand the situation and apply the appropriate leadership style.

Effects of Covid on Sale of Cat Products

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COVID-19 pandemic has affected all sectors of human life. Social distancing, stay-at-home orders, schools, and office closures have resulted in all-new patterns of living. In the lockdown protocols of COVID-19 business industries all over the world suffer major setbacks. It has created both unprecedented challenges and opportunities for the cat care market players. Pre-COVID-19 forecast of the cat care market pegged at 5%-6% growth in 2020, which is estimated to suffer a drop of 2.5%-3%. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all four sectors of the cat products industry, including cat food, non-food supplies, veterinary services, and non-medical services.

2 Major Impact of COVID-19 on Cat Products Market

Since there’s no evidence yet that cats contribute to the spread of COVID-19, families, and individuals feel safe turning to companion animals for mental and emotional support during this time. Families that have kids at home due to school closures and the disruption of public sports, recreation, and entertainment events are more likely to adopt a pet. While 8 percent of pet owners overall have adopted a cat because of the pandemic, that rate notches up to 12 percent among those with children under age 18 at home.

These factor robust sales of cat products during the time of the pandemic. First, there was an uptick in cat adoption, which “swelled into a surge of pet acquisition.” This generated a “sales boom” for higher-ticket pet durables like habitats, carriers, bedding, along with side novelty and pampering purchases like pet toys and accessories.

Panic buying and stockpiling practices during the initial phase of COVID-19 have rapidly emptied the shelves of cat care products, which prevented a pointy decline within the market revenue. However, a large number of cat care services that are not deemed ‘essential’ came to standstill, due to the domino effect of nationwide lockdown.

Cat Food Products

The global cat food market reached a value of US$ 32.4 Billion in 2019. The early stages of the pandemic saw a rise in sales of cat food. Dry Cat food, Wet Cat Food, and Cat Treats are three types of cat food products available in the market. The owners tend to prefer dry food made from animal derivatives worldwide as it is cheaper and rich in nutrients than the others.

Shopping Habits

The other paradigm shift that was witnessed during the Covid-19, that users tend to buy from online stores rather than from markets or supermarkets. The havoc of pandemic and lockdown protocols make people stay at their homes, created a window for online shopping. Brands all over the world are providing e facilities to their customers. As of 2019 pet food market has a share of US$ 29 Billion.

The pundits expected it to grow between 4 to 6 pc in 2020. Taking the effect of COVID-19 into account this an encouraging growth. The reason behind the stability of pet products is due to the friendly nature of millennials and generation X towards pets. US campaign of “pets as family” is helped thrive the pet business.

How to Start an Investment Partnership

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Before knowing the procedure of starting the investment company you have to know what is “investment partnership”? 

Investment partnership is unlike to common business company. The basic definition of partnership means the “contribution of two or more individuals in the business”. So, an investment partnership means all the partners involved in this partnership have different liabilities and tax benefits. There is one general partner that makes decisions on a daily basis and makes a business structure. In simple words, that partner has managerial responsibilities. Other partners are not involved in managerial activities. That partner can be an individual or any entity that upholds all the managerial activities.

Who will own the managerial activities is written in the agreement. This agreement also involved the proportion of profit and loss, resolve disputes and change in ownership structure, etc.  The proportion of profit and loss is divided according to their investment ratio. They can invest money, property, labor, or skills. Investment partnership is also called limited investment company or limited partnerships.

How to Start an Investment Partnership?

There are different steps to start an investment partnership or limited partnership.

Agreement with Partners

Making an agreement is an essential part of this partnership. This agreement is made between the partners that include all the important points like the percentage of loss, profit, responsibilities of every partner, limitations of every partner, who will govern the managerial activities, etc.

Here a question arises “Why this agreement is important?”. The answer is very simple that is to avoid any future issues. When you decide to start an investment partnership you should have in your mind that you will face many difficulties. That’s why to make an agreement between the partners is an important part of this business.

Apply for GST and ABN

To start the investment partnership, you apply for the ABN.  You get ABN after register your business name. Once you have registered for ABN, the next step is to apply for GST on the behalf of ABN.

Having Tax File Number (TFN)

Every partnership must have its own TFN. Every partner in this business has his own superannuation that is very important for the partner and also for the partnership. In an investment partnership, one important thing is to look after the superannuation arrangements of each employee or partner.

Need for a Lawyer

In every partnership business, the need for a lawyer is mandatory.  All the paperwork (agreement) is done with the help of a lawyer. Your lawyer gets approval from the court and your company name registered. After name registration, you can work officially.

Final Words

Investment partnership includes two or more persons. This partnership business starts after an agreement. This agreement has all the important points related to the business like profit, loss, and manager name, etc.

 After the agreement, one person becomes a general partner having all managerial responsibilities while others work as co-workers. The manager assigns the duty of their co-workers. For becoming the partner you can contribute assets, money, skills, property, and labor.

You can start your company after officialized your company name. First, you name your company, then take the application form from the country’s capital. You fill the form and attach the required documents. After that, you need a lawyer for court work. Your lawyer helps you to officially register your company name.

How to Start your Dog Treat Business?

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Struggling to start your own dog treat brand, but aren’t quite sure how to do it the right way? Well, let go of your worries now as you have visited the right place for your problem.

We have come up with a brilliant strategy for starting a dog treat business and I’m sure you are gonna get a great benefit after reading this article. So stick till the end. You can find more business ideas here

Make a Strong Business Plan

The first rule of starting a dog treat business is to create a strong business plan. Approach and hire a professional financial and business analyst with a background in making business plans for pets and more specifically for dog product-related businesses. Hire their services to design your dog treat business plan.

Choose a Location

Once you have the plan in your hand, your next step is to decide where the location of your store is going to be.  The location has a great impact on your dog treat business.

Even though you are selling the best quality dog treats and have the most reasonable pricing model, if your store is located on the wrong side then you’re not going to make many sales.

Therefore it’s important to secure your location in a market or commercial place so that more customers are attracted to your store.

Register Your Business

Once you have all the other essential things done like creating the blueprints of your business and securing the finest location for your store, now it’s time to register your business and make it legal. Get all the documentation work done and apply for the EIN.

Once you have registered your dog treat business in the documents of the USA government, there is no more stopping you from starting your business.

Come up with Catching Recipes

The core of a dog treat business is the recipes offered by it. You may know that unlike cats who are not too much into the taste, dogs are really crazy about the taste of the meal they are eating. And once you have discovered the secret recipes that dogs just love, then your business is going to blossom a lot. So focus on the taste, recipe, and quality of treats. Mix different ingredients and create new recipes that are not already available in the market.  

Packaging Comes Next

Once you have listed down all the recipes that you’re gonna offer and have started manufacturing the products. Now it’s time for the packaging, label, and trademarks. Make sure to mention the copyright on the covering of your products so that no one can copy your brand

Start Marketing for your Business

As you have just started your business and there is already a lot of competition in this niche out there, therefore, it’s no surprise that you’re not gonna make enough sales in the start and not many customers are going to visits your store much.

Therefore you must start marketing your brand to make it recognizable. Use Instagram to boost sales and bring some attractive offers like BOGOF. Pay the media for the advertisement, start advertising on the internet and via emails. 

Maintain your Quality and Grow Your Business

Once your products start selling, now your next challenge is to maintain the quality of your treats you are making for dogs. Make sure that the quality of your treats don’t start to fall once you have made many sales as it is going to have a really bad impression on the client.

Why is Cloud Computing Important?

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Not very long ago, the major problem for companies was to run and host applications. For this, they had to maintain and establish a server of their own which was not quite fascinating and wasted a lot of time. But then, cloud computing emerged and it changed the whole traditional structure of businesses. It became a lot easier for the companies to manage their data and ultimately, the business started to depend on it.

Now, cloud computing has become the most integral unit of a business’s infrastructure. No company can set the bases of its business without cloud computing. In short, cloud computing has become like the soul of every business, so let’s have a look at the importance of cloud computing and discuss some of its key benefits in business so that you can decide more openly whether to have cloud computing for your business or not. Let’s begin: 

Reasons Behind the Importance of Cloud Computing

Flexibility

One of the major reasons why companies prefer cloud computing over other customized applications is that it offers more flexibility to their employees and management.

It allows you to manage your time between multiple responsibilities of your business, moreover, if you want to access certain files that are located on your offices computer, cloud computing allows you to access them using its virtual office, thus providing you with unlimited flexibility.   

Scalability

Another main reason behind the importance of cloud in businesses is its scalability. Cloud computing is just the right fit to fulfill your company’s bandwidth demands. Cloud makes it easier for you to professionally handle all your company’s data. It allows you to make quick adjustments in scaling up and scaling down the resources of storage along with other operations. In a nutshell, cloud computing offers you the flexibility to up size and down size your cloud capacity whenever the need arises.

Efficiency

With cloud computing by their side, it becomes easier for businesses to work on and increase their efficiencies in all aspects. Cloud computing has enhanced the data accessibility thus saving the precious time of employees and staff.

Before cloud computing, the employees and workers had to exchange the files by attaching them with emails, which in result created multiple formats of edited files and it was nearly impossible to locate the original files which cause a lot of confusion, waste of time, and company’s loss.

But cloud computing has made it possible for the worker to approach and work on a single file at the same time, thus it saves them from making mistakes and brings efficiency in product development.

Cost-Effectiveness

Cloud computing has proved to be a great benefit when it comes to cost-effectiveness. As you already know that cloud computing offers you on-demand services which means you only have to pay for what you are using.

While when we lay an eye on other application packages offered by companies, it is just a waste of money as you are giving lots of dollars away every month even when you are not using their services.

Moreover, cloud computing also saves you from spending on maintain and establishing applications on your server, restoring your lost data, and much more.

Risk Free Digital Transformation

As you know that digital transformation is a vital need of every business. But many companies are still a lot hesitant when it comes to data transfer, the reason is they are afraid due to the risk of data loss as they will have to completely migrate their whole system.

However, cloud computing ensures all of their worries as it offers a smooth and consistent data transfer thus makes it easier for the companies to engage confidently in digital transformation.

Data Backup and Disaster Recovery

Cloud computing practices great standards and procedures to ensure that their client’s information, data, and other privacy is completed securely in the cloud. Moreover, it also offers the facility of data recovery in case the client lost his data during the migration or due to any other reason. Hence, cloud computing is the safest and most secure decision one can make for the company.  

Mobile Access to Data

Cloud computing allows you to access your important data from around the globe even through your smartphone, this is by far the greatest benefit of cloud computing.

Just imagine you are on an aboard trip and you have to urgently access your important files that are stored in your office’s computer. Then what would you do if you are not using the cloud computing services, of course, you’re going to suffer a great business loss in that case.

However, cloud computing can save you from this loss and you won’t have to rush your car to the office in the middle of the night just to access your files.

Difference between Grant and Donation

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Every country in the world has needy or poor people. In some countries, the poverty ratio is high or in some, it’s less. There are foundations in such countries that deal with poverty. These foundations donate some money or gifts to poor people. Other than that, the Govt announces scholarships for needy students. Some rich and kind-hearted people help the needy people by giving those gifts or some money.

In the above paragraph, I have used two specific words. One is “donation” and the second is “grant”. Some people do not differentiate these two and take it in the same meaning. Don’t mess up these two words. Maybe you catch it in the same sense but both are not the same. It is just the same in one sense “giving something (gift, money or something else) to someone”.

Difference between Donation and Grant

GrantsDonation
Given to the needy according to selection criteria and proper rules.Not selection criteria needed
Cannot donate freelyDonate freely to the needy or organization
Application process neededNo  application process needed

What is Grant?

Grants meaning “funds” that gives to the needy people of a country. Government, foundations, educational institutions, or an individual are responsible for giving these funds to the needy people according to some rules and regulations. Educational scholarships are also included in this category.

Government or some educational institute announces the scholarships for the needy students. In the case of the educational institute, they have specific criteria for the needy students. If a student meets that criterion he/she has awarded the scholarship. Scholarships that announce the government have some paperwork. Students fill that form and apply for the scholarship and needy students have been awarded the scholarship.

Some foundations also give the funds to the people who want to start their businesses. These types of funds are given after assuring their business type and doing proper paperwork. Some grants maker nowadays are known as the investor of society.

What is a Donation?

The donation means “giving gifts or money to someone free of cost”. People and some organizations mostly donate with the attention of reward or helping needy people.

People donate directly to needy people in the form of gifts or others (grocery, clothes, money, etc) according to their status. After giving to the needy people they never rescind about it. Some people donate to organizations that use this donation for needy children or people.

The donation has 2 types

Unrestricted Donation

People donate without any restrictions and never ask about the donation again to the organization.

Restricted donation (permanent or temporary)

People donate to the organization and have check and balance to them. Some people have checks and balance at their donation till their money isn’t used for the purpose to which they donated. After completion of their purpose, they don’t ask about it (the temporary type of restricted donation).

In permanently restricted donation, there is a restriction in this donation that can never be removed.

Difference between Grant and Loan

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Are you looking for a suitable financing option for your business or personal matters? Loan and grants are two possible solutions to your problem. But before you select one, it is essential to understand what both are, and what’s the difference between grant and loan to make the right choice for your situation.

This article briefly describes the terms Grant and Loan and elaborates on the differences between loans and grants.

What is Grant?

When one party provides funds (in the form of money) or goods to a second party, the fund provider is called Grant Maker (Grant Provider) and maybe a foundation, organization, government sector, trust, or a wealthy person. The second party which receives the grant is called Grant Recipient, may be generally a nonprofit entity, but not always necessary.

For example, an educational institution, a business, a welfare organization, or an individual may be a grant recipient. The funds or goods provided as a grant are non-refundable. But there are certain conditions that must be met before you become eligible to obtain a grant.

What is Loan?

The loan is giving some amount of money to another party on the condition that the recipient will pay back some extra amount. The actual amount that is given is called Principal Amount and the extra amount is called Interest.

An example of a loan is a mortgage, which is a secured form of a loan, whereas a credit card is unsecured.

Difference between Grant and Loan

Difference between Grant and Loan

Grant and loan differ from each other in every aspect. There have different sources, eligibility criteria, limitations, and payment options.

1. Sources

Three main sources for grants are as follows:

  • The central, state, provincial, or local (municipal) government
  • Foundations and welfare organizations, which provide a lot of money to the needy parties
  • Private companies and corporations

The organizations that are devoted to education, healthcare, and other social welfare activities are the ones who receive grants. Individuals who are not financially stable, and have to pay for some basic needs can also avail of grants

There are five main sources from where people can obtain loans

  • Bank funding
  • Private venture
  • Personal funding also called friends-and-family funding
  • Crowd-funding financial support
  • Government-supported funding

The rate of interest, payment conditions and the amount depends upon various factors. People usually take loans to set up businesses or homes.

2. Application and Eligibility

Grant Application: is a document which states your extent of the need for the grant. It is an organized document that describes the criteria by the funding authority.

Loan Application: Loan seekers have to fill-up a form that includes details and clauses regarding the loan for which the borrower applies.

Grant Eligibility

There are specific conditions for each type of grant, which has to be checked by the grant applicants. For example, educational institutions offer grants but they first satisfy that the student really needs a grant or not.

Loan Eligibility

Different slabs for a loan are provided so that the applicant can apply according to his income status and credit score. Interest on the loan is a liability on the lender and applicants have to take it as a serious consideration.

Amount

Grant Amount

The amount of a grant depends on its type. For example, Pass-through grant, which the federal government provides to estates or provinces involve large amounts, whereas competitive grant provided to an individual may comprise relatively smaller amounts.

Loan Amount

The loan amount that is approved depends on the credit rating and monthly or yearly income of the applicant. Loan Contract with the conditions shows the borrower promises to repay the loan amount and interest rates.

Sometimes an asset may be taken or fixed as collateral by mutual consent as an assurity. This called a secured loan. Loans are of two types 1) secured loan and 2) unsecured loan. Click here to read more about it.

Payment

Grant Payment

Grant payment depends upon the nature of the grant. Grants for small businesses, research and development, natural disasters, universities, and export development are all different in their nature. The receiver do not pays back the grant amount.

Loan Payment

The lender has to pay back the principal amount along with interest. Return of funds is performed in periodic payments but loan can also be fully paid at a time.

Collateral

Grant Collateral

The grantmaker makes sure that the grant recipient has been utilizing the provided grant properly. For example, if the federal government gives grants to the provincial government, the federal government must perform an audit of the grant provided.

Loan Collateral

It is a security and protection for a lender against a loan, therefore collateral is an asset. In case if the borrower defaults on loan payments, the lender can sell it to cover the losses.

Conclusion

A loan implies that you have to return the amount of money, most often with interest to the lender. Loans are taken by individuals and businesses to cater to their expenses. Grants, however, do not require returning. They are a sort of gift given to individuals and institutions by government, trusts, or cooperation for their benefit.