Custom Software Development or serving Strategy instead of Technology

Do we have to remind the positive impact on both productivity and profitability of Custom Software Development and digital technologies? Not really. Nevertheless, it might be interesting to understand its nature, how this impact comes into play, at which levels.

A 2015 study from Deloitte & MIT Sloan shows that digitally mature enterprises are very much focused on globally integrating digital technologies such as Integrated Systems, Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud to transform their business process while enterprises digitally less mature are concentrating on solving specific problems with specific technologies.

The key words here being « globally integrating » ; it’s by integrating globally digital technologies that enterprises transform their business process and their way of doing business, therefore, there must be a global integration strategy of digital technologies and Custom Software Development into play.

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Choosing An ERP

Choosing an ERP is always a difficult decision that has significant economic consequences. It needs research and proper evaluation because it influences your organization in many different ways. Long term commitment to a software and its vendor comes after this step. Implementation process lasts for such a long time and it takes huge amount of resources. Therefor you and your consultants need a clear understanding of your requirements and characteristics for a product. Here is a list of equally important though less considered items for evaluating and choosing an ERP product. (more…)

The Database – always at the heart of a company’s business reality

Amazingly, 25 years ago, the only people who spoke of Databases (DB) were the IT folks. They were perceived within large enterprises, not just as geeks but as business gurus. They held the secret formulas, some sort of modern day sorcerers.

Over time, the variety of databases available has diversified. Databases infiltrated the universe of many different departments of businesses; be it the Sales Force with its CRM, Human Resources (HR) with a homemade Access application, the Finance department with their multitude of Excel sheets (even if strictly speaking, they’re not really databases, it must be pointed out that Excel still manages the largest amount of data stored globally), Production and Purchasing with their ERP, etc. And that’s without counting the best years of Visual FoxPro,  which has been replaced by SQL, Oracle and many others…

Since that time, we have bandied about the term across levels of business, for example: “I think we have that into our Database”

Good evening, tonight on Discovery: The Adventures of Databases…

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Web applications or Windows ? No, Web applications & Windows!

The debate has been raging for over a decade and the heights the confrontation and rivalries. So, what is it, Web applications or Windows? At the time, these two diametrically opposed visions each had hard core advocates who had sworn allegiance to the death. Much water has passed under the bridge since then and today we understand that reality is not quite so simple; not everything is black or white.

The vast majority of businesses – be they big, medium or even small – have purchased numerous office software programme licenses from Microsoft (Windows, Office, SharePoint, etc.) since the arrival of Windows and a great many of these have invested in the development of applications custom built in Microsoft’s .Net framework or other platforms. And today, almost all IT managers are turning to the Web applications where they are seriously considering or at the very least evaluating their options there.

Walking the Web applications / Windows high wire with my business

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