Productivity & Business Process

Microsoft talks a lot about Intelligence, Big Data, AI and Machine Learning and it is moving ahead at a pace on all fronts by enhancing its new Office 365 + Dynamics 365 Integrated Productivity Suite with some of these tools; it is worth asking how you should align your Software Development to make the best of this new offer?

Microsoft promises to add to its Integrated Productivity Suite such tools as Power BI, Cortana Intelligence Suite, MyAnalytics, Tap for Word, QuickStarter for PowerPoint, etc.; one has to admit that it’s a pretty powerful combination of business tools for any enterprise, no matter the size. But is your IT Department ready to benefit from it?

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Your Software Development is based upon and targets enhanced Productivity perfectly integrated with your business process? Well then, the new Microsoft offering should please you.

Clearly, Microsoft intends on positioning itself in the VSBs (Very Small Business) and SMBs market segments by deploying, far beyond Office automation, a new business offering around Integrated Productivity encapsulating both Collaboration and Business Development (CRM & BD,  Clientele Service and Sales and…).

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It’s an evidence, no enterprise wants to discover a security breach in its IT systems and applications and make the news with its data all over the Internet. Cybersecurity is an obligation for all enterprises to which they must comply; and today, enterprise security goes way beyond IT systems and applications.

In the last few posts, we discussed the many advantages of Cloud Services of which cybersecurity is key; like data protection (encryption on the wire, sometimes in the DB, protection from hackers, backup, etc.). So, what about IT systems and applications in particular, and your enterprise in general?

Protect but don’t affect

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Although it’s been one of the most talked-about buzzword of the last few years, surprisingly, there are still a lot of misconceptions regarding the benefits of moving to, being on and operating on the Cloud. Nevertheless, there are still many good reasons to go on the Cloud for Startups and SMBs. So maybe it’s time to take a second good look at it and give it a second thought… if you haven’t yet.

The basic premises remain the same:

• forget about hardware, we’ll provide it
• forget about licensing, we’ll provide it
• you only pay for what you use

So why not give the Cloud a first shot or, some may say, to give your company a second chance!

6 good reasons to go on the Cloud for Startups and SMBs

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We strongly believe that Custom Development can and should adapt to IT Legacy systems.

As an IT Consulting firm offering Custom Development Services, we have developed over the years the knack for analysing and recognizing the minutiae of IT legacy systems and designing different communications protocol to exchange data with them.

Of course, if you ask IT how to go about addressing new challenges, they will probably go with the systems and technologies in place. It’s a question of comfort and risk management because it is not usually appreciated to add other systems and applications to the existing IT environment.

But the thing is, that’s not always the best course of action.

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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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Lean Software Development is the extension of the Lean principles to IT Products and Services Development and Management; more specifically, it aims at eliminating any type of work that adds no value to an IT product or service.^[1]

Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that relies on a collaborative team effort to improve performance by systematically removing waste,^[1] on eight types of operation: Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over production, Over processing, Defects, and Skills (abbreviated as ‘TIMWOODS’).

One shouldn’t underestimate, in a more and more predominant eBusiness and eCommerce environment, the crucial role IT has come to play in businesses’ primary activities of delivering value to customers.  IT often provides products and services that enable customers to find, order, and pay. IT also provides enhanced productivity and allows both suppliers and employees to better communicate, collaborate and produce / execute.

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100 times go back to your work, again, again and again… and so it goes also for your Application Development Project and your Application Development Business Case.

The fact is among all enterprises, budgets are getting scarce and their distribution is getting rare as well. When it comes to application development project, we clearly see where it starts but not necessarily where it will end and not always in a good manner for that matter; which leaves bad memories and a bitter taste in the mouth of too many C-levels.

Although the initial motivation to start an application development project seems legitimate in the eyes of CMOs, CIOs or CTOs; their Application Development Business Case not always adequately supports it. The general idea is always to increase revenues but maybe we can add some rigor to it since you’ll have to sell your project on the inside and validate your Application Development Business Case.

Your challenge consists mostly in answering a few questions and validate your initial assumptions. So, here’s a basic pathway and a few useful arguments.

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To Start, usually I used Coda but for 3 or 4 months I have left it over. It’s not so fast and it doesn’t adapt to new html or other standards. I’d like to have something fast, stable but with sacrificing features. Atom which is created by GitHub looks like interesting. With all the community plugins , it’s not the case anymore; I LOVE IT!

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If one technology or concept has driven attention at Fintech 2016, it’s certainly the Blockchain Technology, upon which the Bitcoin crypto-currency is based. This technology was the topic of the Wednesday’s lunch which was immediately followed by a discussion with a panel of high-level international experts.

Fintech Montreal 2016 was presented last Tuesday and Wednesday, on the 20th and 21st of September, at the Palais des Congrès and as expected the Who’s Who in the world of finance in Québec was attending. The program was well structured including of course, a « Startups » moment, just as every event worth attending does. God knows, Fintechs are worth the detour since they rock the Finance & Banks processes big time, invading a field which used to be exclusive to some, proposing simple, fluid and mobile enhanced solutions, in short, much more efficient; just think of the new “Mobile Money” paradigm and Mobile Banking!

In short, according to all these experts, the Blockchain Technology will revolutionize the field of Banks and Finance in the next few years and this revolution, although still pretty much invisible to the majority, has already started.

Why and how?  Let’s see!

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Major disruptions in Banking and Financing on the horizon; thanks to new technologies from Big Data Analytics to Mobile Apps that are reshaping this sector at a fast pace, resulting in new ways for companies and customers & consumers to interact, to manage their money and to conduct transactions.

Global investment in Fintech ventures hit $5.7 billion in the first quarter of 2016, and about half the funding went to projects in Asia, primarily in China. “The reason funding is taking off now is that the four platforms – Mobility, Big Data (IoT) and Analytics, Blockchain Technology (Bitcoin) and Machine Learning (AI) – are in their infancy,” said Catherine Wood, CEO of ARK Investment Management (US) at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in 2016.

The fact is that Banking and Financial Services is one of the largest industries that is still not fully digitalized. In this field of activities, the technological revolution has just begun.

So let’s see what we’re up to and what major disruptions we may foresee.

Overview of upcoming disruptions in Banking and Financing

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The main Big Data problem today is that data still has to be labelled and categorized manually and this is what keeps the marvels of Big Data out of reach for most enterprises. Some may argue there might be an even bigger Big Data problem for businesses operating in th real world.

Big Data is getting… well, pretty big, especially when coupled with IoT. It is expected to change the landscape of Marketing, and of the way businesses do business, by enabling predictability of sales and customers’ needs and expectations, thanks to real-time analysis and visualizations of huge amount of structured and unstructured data gathered from the digital realm (mobile apps, web, website, social media, etc.).

And that’s great if you’re a large company with large resources, with big budgets and big clients, mostly operating in the digital world and producing huge amount of data to dive into so to extract those Marketing Intelligence pearls that will provide you with a competitive edge.

Many predict that Big Data-savvy will be a must of the next generation CMOs’ successful profile.

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Most companies, even if they don’t know it, already have way much more data than they can efficiently handle; they are literally drowning under data! So, do you believe the Big Data promise? That it’ll make a difference in your business performance and profits?  Not so evident!

But first, let’s see what we are talking about?  What is Big Data?

And when did it turn out to be BIG?

The true nature of Data and the Big Data promise

Data comes in two forms: structured and unstructured. When you join the two, it becomes Big, really BIG.

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This is Big Data era right? And everyboy is just so happy with all this new Intelligence pouring in and all these KPIs literally falling from the skies which will all of a sudden enlighten us and magically empower us with infallible decisions and grant us assured success, right?

And we’re all writing down new figures of « big-data augmented » sales and revenues and God knows just how fantastic everything will be from now on for us all!

Well, the thing is I don’t want to kill it for you all but really, don’t you feel that as CXO we’re all already pretty much flooded with data, information et metrics of all sorts?

Two considerations I’d like to submit to you.

Question of Intelligence, what KPIs and not even Big Data will ever tell you!

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Does the IT function receive all the credit it deserves? Not really!  Surprising, considering IT key role and technologies’ contribution to business success. Maybe business leaders should start adopting the Startup attitude when facing new challenges or consider someone who does as a real Business Partner, like IT Consultants. Here’s why?

I understand that all CFO, CMO and CHRO will tell you that their function is the most valuable within the enterprise but one can’t fail to see that without IT, all these guys would be in trouble, right… or elsewhere!

Nevertheless, even 15 years later, the year-2000 bug still feels like a big knot in the throat for most C-levels, CTOs & CIOs have lost a lot of credibility there. On the other hand, slowly but surely, CTOs & CIOs are slowly gaining higher decision-levels within enterprises.

The CIO & CTO Dilemma regarding its IT Business Partner

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