Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

March 2023

Introducing the new and improved Automations designer

Courier Automations lets you build smart notification workflows. With Automations, notifications can be scheduled, driven by events, canceled, and more. We’ve just completed a big redesign of the automations UI — before this overhaul, notifications were restricted to linear workflows. This made it difficult to build more advanced automations, however the new automations UI, based on React Flow, allows you to build more sophisticated workflows, including those requiring branching logic.

Top 11 self-hosted chat apps in 2023 for secure communication

Organizations adapting to the global trend of working remotely or in hybrid settings must maintain data privacy by adhering to local or industry-specific regulations. This can be achieved almost effortlessly with the help of self-hosted chat apps without compromising the organization's ease of usage and smooth communication. Self-hosted chat apps are open-source software that one can download, modify, and deploy in their organization as needed.

Top 7 customizable chat apps for every use case

In-app messaging has become integral to most businesses across industries due to its convenience and efficiency. For example, in the healthcare industry, live chats can help patients schedule appointments, ask medical questions, and receive timely updates about their health status. Therefore, real-time in-app messaging is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have.

Best Practices for Managing and Maintaining On-Premise Infrastructure

Most companies prefer on-premise infrastructure over cloud solutions in today's digital environment because of the unprecedented cyberattacks and loopholes in data maintenance. Since you observe companies implementing cloud solutions successfully, your thoughts may differ.

Simplifying notifications with the Courier iOS SDK

Push notifications are a valuable tool for keeping users informed and increasing their engagement with your app. You can use push notifications to alert users about promotions, new content, or any other important updates. While push notifications are a powerful tool, setting up push notifications in iOS can be a daunting task that requires a significant amount of effort and time. Fortunately, the Courier iOS Mobile Notifications Software Development Kit (SDK) simplifies this process.

7 Tips and Techniques to Boost Intrapersonal Communication

Unlike interpersonal communication, which is a conversation between two and more people; intrapersonal communication is communication with yourself, reflecting on your thoughts, and getting to know yourself better. It’s super essential for personal growth and development and even has a big impact on your mental health and overall well-being.

Upgrade your team communication: 10 best Cisco Jabber alternatives

When it comes to team collaboration, Cisco Jabber is a robust tool. It enables users to communicate with one another through multiple channels, including phone, video, VoIP, and instant messaging. These features make it a preferred option for businesses. But, in November 2022, Cisco announced its End-of-Life (EOL) and End-of-Support(EOS). It means Cisco will discontinue the development, sale, and support of Jabber. There will be no more software updates, security patches, and technical support.

Automate Slack and MS Teams Notifications using Node.js

There are ways to integrate cross-channel notifications via individual APIs, but we’re here to provide you with a quick guide to send across your preferred channels in one single API call. This guide will focus on sending and automating messages via Slack, MS Teams, and any other channel of your choice from your Node.js applications. You can also automate Slack and Microsoft Teams notifications using Python. This blog is a comprehensive setup guide.

What is multilevel security, and why does it matter?

In today’s world, organizations must be conscious about protecting data and safeguarding the exchange of information. On top of that, digital transformation has become ubiquitous, covering everything from the organization's top-secret business leads to unclassified day-to-day operational information. With this level of digitization, the risk of cyberattacks also comes to the fore. A multilevel security (MLS) approach is crucial in privacy-conscious organizations prioritizing data security.

Building Android Push Notifications with Firebase and Courier's SDK

Push notifications have become an essential part of modern mobile apps, allowing you to keep your users engaged and informed. However, implementing push for different platforms can be a complex and time-consuming task, requiring developers to set up and handle token management, testing, and other logistical details.

Breakdown in Communication: What is It and How to Deal With It

Do you know some companies don’t realize or admit they are suffering from communication breakdowns, which causes adverse outcomes like arguments between the teams leading to blame games, delays in deliveries, employees' poor performance affecting their morale, the noxious surge of customer complaints, and so on? The grievous problem is about the companies that don’t realize the breakdown in communication.

7 Common HIPAA violations and how to avoid them

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law that requires healthcare providers and other covered entities to protect the privacy and security of patient health information. HIPAA is a common topic in the medical field, but sometimes it can be difficult to track what it refers to and how to avoid violations. Complying with HIPAA rules requires constant effort and customization.

On-premise solutions: 5 reasons why they're getting more popular

Lately, on-premise solutions are experiencing an upsurge. Although many companies choose cloud computing for its convenience and scalability, organizations prioritizing airtight security, complete control, and privacy prefer leveraging on-premise solutions. On-prem deployment has many unique benefits businesses can capitalize on, such as in-house storage of data and software, lower network bandwidth cost, easier compliance, and more.

9 best on-premise chat solutions for secure business collaboration

Given the widespread use of instant messaging and chat apps for communication in 2023, organizations are prioritizing control over data exchanges on these platforms. MarketsandMarkets reports that the on-premises collaboration market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 12.7% during the forecast period, with an expected market size of USD 85.8 billion by 2026. What drives this growth? It is the increasing adoption of cloud-based and on-premises collaboration solutions by organizations!

6 Communication Plan Templates With Examples

Effective communication plans are critical to any business. You need to describe your specific business messages and who should say them across business situations. This can help ensure your staff and stakeholders take your desired action. The result is that you reach your communication goals. The thing is, certain business situations crop up more than once.

Automate Slack and Microsoft Teams Notifications using Python

Messaging apps are essential for internal collaboration and critical notifications such as reminders, alerts, and other time-sensitive updates. While integrating with the Slack and Microsoft APIs is fairly straightforward, implementing these tools as a part of a full-featured notification system that embeds with your app experience can be far more daunting.

New Courier Inbox: Add a full-featured notification center to your app in minutes

Email and SMS are becoming increasingly busy channels. Sometimes, there’s no better way to reach a user than by sending a message to a notification center right inside of your app. However, building an inbox experience like this, from scratch, was a significant engineering effort. Today, we are announcing a major update to Courier Inbox, a solution for developers to add an in-app notification center to their web application in a matter of minutes.

Mattermost Boards How-to: Project Management

Whether you’re working on a small feature or a large cross-team initiative, you’ll need a way to track tasks and keep everyone up-to-date. Managing projects on spreadsheets isn’t optimal for most teams, and specialized project management tools may lack flexibility and robust communication options. With Mattermost Boards, you can create fully customizable boards to fit your project needs.

How can air-gapped networks offer airtight security?

With the advancement in technology and rapid digitization, the potential risk for cyber crimes has also increased to a great extent. These risks often incur a data loss, negatively impact assets, and in some extreme cases, lead to plant shutdowns. In order to mitigate such risks, many businesses are now shifting towards adapting the air-gapped network strategy. This security measure ensures that systems and their stored data are protected from unauthorized access.

Pros and Cons of Self-Hosted software Over The One in Cloud

Like it or not, cloud services have entered our lives. Kids play online, adults upload photos to the cloud, IT professionals create sophisticated software, and big businesses like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have long relied on big data centers. The only question left is which is better: self-hosted software or the one in the cloud. On the one hand, a self-hosted server gives you complete control, but on the other hand, the maintenance costs are much higher compared to computing in the cloud.

What is Workation? Exploring the Benefits of Combining Work and Vacation

Workation is a portmanteau word that combines the words "work" and "vacation" and is also occasionally spelled workcation or worcation. By this point, I hope you have comprehended what is workation. I am sure you know about the workplace, motivation, and fun at workplace prominence, but allow me to elaborate on them since every element imbues into workation.

101 Productivity Quotes to Keep You Inspired at Work

Being productive at work means getting more things done in less time. One of the best productivity motivators is inspiration, but it’s not easy to get inspired while working from an office or even from home. That’s when productivity quotes come into play. We’ve picked 101 motivational quotes that we hope will inspire and motivate you to accomplish more. But remember, no single quote will help you overcome unproductivity overnight.

Building A Customizable User Notifications Preferences Center

Respecting user preferences is crucial to building a successful web application and maintaining high engagement and user retention over time. Engineers behind Courier’s new Preferences Designer talk about their experience building this out of the box solution and demonstrate how to get it up and running in minutes.

WhatsApp Web: A Detailed Guide on How to Get the Most Out of It

Remember when texting someone required a huge bill to pay? We couldn’t even send in group messages, interact with teams to discuss some important updates, or chit-chat with a group of friends from different countries together. Over-the-top messaging apps, like WhatsApp, came in to solve the problem since they allowed us to send texts while using our internet connection. It has now been acquired by Meta (previously Facebook), which improved the security and added some interesting features.

5 Reasons To Offer Multiple Messaging Channels

In today’s fast-paced and digital world, messaging has become an increasingly popular form of communication for customers. It is important for companies to adapt to their customers' preferences in order to provide the highest levels of satisfaction, gain more customers, and provide the best customer experiences. That’s why we’re excited to announce the addition of two new messaging channels to our live chat software: WhatsApp and Google Business Messages.

New RudderStack Integration: Create Actionable Data Insights

Are you looking for a way to gain a clearer picture of your users and use that insight to improve your communication strategies? We've got some great news for you! Today, we're thrilled to announce an integration between Courier and Rudderstack, a customer data platform (CDP) that allows businesses to collect, process, and route customer event data across product, marketing, and analytics tools for better decision-making.

6 benefits of open source software for enterprise businesses [+10 best tools]

The days of the old-school proprietary software are gone! Open-source is the new kid in town. And it's taking the business world by storm — including enterprise businesses. Businesses of all sizes are increasingly adopting open-source enterprise software as the digital landscape continues to evolve. Traditionally, we've seen open-source projects being adopted by smaller companies with limited budget or niche software needs.

Benefits of Horizontal Communication in the Workplace

According to Michael J. Papa, the author of Organizational Communication, “a corporation that focuses on horizontal communication places more importance on fostering collaboration than managing work. When a company expands, lateral or horizontal communication is an intelligent approach to maintain a sense of unity and have all of its parts work towards the same objectives.”

8 Useful Template Ideas for an Hourly Planner

Working remotely can be more convenient, but staying ahead of your schedule in the comfort of your home may be a challenge. With so many opportunities to procrastinate or take up home errands instead of working, our performance at work can suffer. What can remote employees do to be better at daily planning and get on top of their productive efficiency? And this is when an hourly planner comes in handy.

Why digital communication matters for education?

In 2023, many schools and universities are increasingly leveraging digital communication to further the goals of effective teaching and assessment. However, many institutions are yet to implement such forward-looking changes. Their efforts are often limited by a lack of funding, outdated infrastructure, or resistance to change. Digital transformation is changing how industries and sectors work, bringing transparency, efficiency and speed to manual processes. The field of education is no different.