www.insightssuccess.com September 2018
Editor’s Pick
Key trends that are driving transformation in saas
Industry Insight Data Center Security: Controlling Possible Threats
Akash Agarwal Co-founder Sahaj Software Solutions
Software Solutions: Building Simple, People-Oriented Solutions
Agile Innovations: Making Industrial Processes Signicantly Faster
A
s globalization and digitalization have increased, companies are effectively responding to the quick change in market requirements and the development of new business methodologies.
Currently, companies are relying on agile innovations to methodize their process, development, adaption of new technologies, and introduction that significantly increase overall process faster. In today’s industrial scenario, agility is becoming important in order to develop high technological dynamics with the correct implementation of agile innovation management in various companies. These innovative approaches have proven their positive effect on the profitability as well as the competitiveness of a company. Agile innovation management is the unified process which needs agile corporate culture to emphasis the process effectively. Its methodologies are slowly gaining acceptance and creating different business models day by day. Innovation is what agile is all about. Although compared with traditional management approaches, agile management approaches offer number of major benefits to business process and aid to successful results. It increases team productivity and employee satisfaction. The entire process helps to improve changing customers’ priorities along with customer engagement and satisfaction which brings valuable products. Henceforth, Insights Success has shortlisted, “The 10 Most Innovative Agile Solution Providers 2018” which are redundantly contributing towards various industrial trends aided with disruptive and innovative agile solutions.
On the cover, we have encompassed, Sahaj Software Solutions a premium software consulting and development company which believes in simplifying complexity. The firm with its advent of technologies like Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning, holistically thinks about providing a simple solution. The firm believes that every complex problem has a simple solution, and its passionate and experienced teams are well poised to find that solution. Sahaj is the company which is redefining the way software is being developed. It is creating newer and faster ways of delivering software projects without any boundaries. Further, we have featured CodeFirst, a leading software development company based in the city of Exeter in the U.K which gives businesses instant access to the industry’s foremost software developers. It also excels at outsourcing services such as customized business software development and application maintenance, DevCom, a reliable software development company comprehends what its clientele values in the services it provides. Its custom software development is based on the latest software technologies adjoined with solid quality assurance, PractiTest, a leading company revolutionizing in technology and methodology that offers Application Life Management and a Cloud-based Innovative Test Management tool. The firm also provides an end-to-end Test Management tool which offers a common platform for all stakeholders in an organization, Zen Ex Machina, a professional management consulting company that specializes in digital transformation, agile coaching, and personnel training across government and commercial entities. The firm helps the government and corporate world improve their digital products and services by using Agile, Lean and UX techniques. Apart from this, our in-house editors have also written masterly-crafted articles named “Key Trends that are Driving Transformation in SaaS” and “The Emerging Cloud Security Solutions and Challenges Ahead”. So, let’s start flipping the pages of the magazine to acknowledge the firms that are simplifying the processes. Happy Reading!
Bhushan Kadam
Sahaj Software Solutions:
Building Simple, People-Oriented Solutions
08 16
26 Digi Transformation
Cloud Insights
Decoding Digital Transformation for Utilities
Using AI to Automatically Optimize Cloud Costs
36
46 Tech Perspective
Tech Outlook
Rising Mobile Workforce and its challenges in the Mobile-Cloud era: Data & Endpoint Management
The Evolution of Testing: Unmatched Acceleration with Fifth Generation Automation
Articles
22
42
30
Editor’s Pick: Key Trends that are Driving Transformation in SaaS
CodeFirst:
An Innovative Software Development Enterprise
28 PractiTest: Transforming Test Management Tool to the Next Level
40
Industry Insight:
Recharging Environment:
Data Center Security: Controlling Possible Threats
Wireless Charging: Future of Green Automotive
20 DevCom:
Delivering Distinctive Software Solutions Globally
34 Zen Ex Machina: Leading Large Organizations with Business Agility
Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Executive Editor Assistant Editors Contributing Editors Visualiser Art & Design Director Associate Designer Co-designer
Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Bhushan Kadam Jenny Fernandes Kedar Kulkarni Ishan Mittal Hitesh Dhamani David King Amol Kamble Sanket Zirpe Asha Bange
Art & Picture Editors Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Binay Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Mayank Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialists Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategists Alina Sege, Shubham SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge Research Analyst Patrick James Circulation Managers Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com
September, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com
Follow us on :
Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Off. No. 513 & 510, 5th Flr., Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk, Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017 Phone - India: +91 7410079881/ 82/ 83/ 84/ 85 Email: info@insightssuccess.in For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.in
www.facebook.com/insightssuccess/
www.twitter.com/insightssuccess
We are also available on : Copyright © 2018 Insights Success, All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Insights Success. Reprint rights remain solely with Insights Success.
Cover Story
Software Solutions: Building Simple, People-Oriented Solutions
‘‘
We firmly believe that every problem, when observed and understood in its entirety can be solved with technology in a simple and effective manner.
‘‘
Akash Agarwal Co-founder Sahaj Software Solutions
S
ahaj Software Solutions is a premium software consulting and development company which believes in simplifying complexity. It reeks of brilliance in whatever it does. Sahaj’s culture has redefined how people interact and mingle with each other. The solutions that the company thinks, designs, and provides to its clients are way different and simple. Currently the organization has a very simple but tall vision. It envisions being one of the most disruptive and innovative, consulting services company globally. Also, according to the organization, in the last few decades, the entire software industry has undergone a massive change and the basic tenet of the industry, respecting humans is forgotten and Sahaj was started with a simple notion to reduce human exploitation in a corporate setting, practices like open salary, profit share, unlimited leaves, no roles or grades, no employer – employee construct, are just a few steps to redefine a new way of working. An Experienced Leadership The very foundation of Sahaj rests on the shoulders of its Co-founders, Akash Agarwal, Sunder Malyandi, Rohit Bansal, and Nitin Dhall. Prior to Co-founding Sahaj, Akash was responsible for leading an 800+ person strong organization named ThoughtWorks India within the capacity of a Managing Director and COO. As part of his tenure there, Akash was hugely successful in setting strategy, streamlining operations and improving profitability manifold, all the while adopting an open, collaborative style of leadership. Before joining ThoughtWorks, Akash played various technical and leadership roles at HCL, Infosys and Aditi Technologies. Akash holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Nagpur University. He is deeply passionate about sustainability on earth, specifically around sources of renewable energy. The best part is that the founding team of Sahaj brings with them 100+ years of collective IT consulting experience. A large part of it is in agile consulting and enablement and not only the founding team, but the entire consulting team at Sahaj has extensive agile Software development and consulting experience.
‘‘
‘‘
We help our customers make appropriate technology and process choices.
Refining People Interaction Sahaj’s atypical culture has redefined how people interact and mingle with each other. Not just this, but the solutions which the organization cultivates and provides to its clients are distinctive yet simple. The company believes when people are not bound by the employer – employee construct, or constraints of roles, grades, position, promotion and above all maximizing profit, then the outcomes are unimaginable. The organization also prefers to provide absolute freedom to think and speak, be it within the team or with the client. Absolute transparency and openness, allows each employee to have a candid conversation with its clients and question them with a clear intent, resulting in creative outcomes. Complete ownership and the ability to act like a CEO, allows Sahaj’s team to not only own and be accountable for the decisions within the company, but also for the project/product design and decisions the company makes every day. By having such a crazy culture, Sahaj has eventually helped its clients to think out of the box and innovate. The culture of extreme ownership and transparency backed by sheer passion, has led to the creation of a unique method of delivering software development projects. Sahaj has helped its clients to cut process wastage by more than 50%, there by achieving a much faster time to market.
cryptography, micro services, machine learning and artificial intelligence is insatiable and it is always looking for more. Prioritizing Compassion Sahaj was started with a very simple notion, to reduce the exploitation of human brain. The organization also believes that the software industry has grown in leaps and bounds, which has reduced the real value of humans. The organization also believes, nowadays leaders have started considering humans as machines, and have undermined the human emotions. Treating people like a resource and creating specialized departments like Human Resources to deal with their problems, is a huge disrespect. However, Sahaj respects human emotions and the power of human brain. It believes if an environment of openness, freedom and empowerment is created, then human brain can do incredible things and achieve unbelievable results. The company believes in promoting human interaction more than documenting things. Not only its projects but also its practices across the organization are based on this principle. Sahaj has faith in encouraging behaviours where the guiding principles are understood by everyone and the implementation is left on to the individual. This also allows people to ask more questions and get more context rather than reading a document and drawing boundaries around what is written. The organization prefers to tell stories rather than prescribing things.
A Distinct Organization Overcoming Travails Sahaj believes that, software development world is changing pretty fast. With advent of technologies like Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning, problem solving has become quite complex and seldom do service providers think holistically about providing a simple solution. This is where Sahaj’s basic principle of simplicity stays true to its values and develops products by retaining simplicity. Designing simple solutions is not easy and needs extensive understanding of the technology space. It is an art and to master the art, an organization needs a team of expert artists who are passionate about solving complex problems. Sahaj believes that every complex problem has a simple solution, and its passionate and experienced teams are well poised to find that solution. The organization’s hunger for designing simple solutions using distributed computing,
The biggest challenge that the organization derives in the agile world currently, is of understanding what ‘agile’ really means. As agile software development becomes more mainstream, organizations and project teams are forced more and more, to adopt agile practices. As a result of this, the time and efforts needed to understand why agile, and what is agile, is lost. Today, teams and organizations are spending more time in ticking the checkboxes and becoming agile compliant on paper. However the reality is very different, if one does an in depth study of the practices, then surprising practices like waterfall-agile will come to the fore.
‘‘
‘‘
We are changing the way organizations leverage technology.
Sahaj likes to call these practices as ‘waterfall-agile’ because people are trying to use the same waterfall practices but bringing all of them in a two or four week sprint. So on paper it is agile because there is a sprint cycle now and other agile practices like stand ups, showcases etc. are being conducted. However in reality it is actually a waterfall methodology with a shorter cycle. Sahaj has also witnessed few situations at many client places and it is much tougher to bring in a change at such places, than traditional waterfall teams. Even on the development side practices such as Test Driven development, pair programming etc., are widely abused and people ends up checking the boxes without understanding those. Foreseeing Newer Horizons In the last 4 years of its perseverance, Sahaj has evidently made its mark in the APAC market. Right from developing a large scale education platform, to designing a disruptive clinical trial process management product using Blockchain, Sahaj has been at the forefront of designing and implementing solutions using new age technologies. Recently, the organization has expanded its operations in the US market and has established two offices; one in Bay Area and the other in Raleigh North Carolina. The organization’s focus is to perform local work in areas of cryptography, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Currently, Sahaj is looking to increase its global footprint and having creating a foothold in Europe and Asia Pac in the near future. Sahaj is the company which is redefining the way software is being developed. It is creating newer and faster ways of delivering software projects without any boundaries. Sahaj thinks there is always a simpler way of solving problem and one has to use that thinking in not only solving software problems, but also in conducting organizational design. By keeping the information hierarchy flat in an organization one can get rid of many evils and can create a diverse culture in an organization.
SUBSCRIBE
READ IT FIRST
TODAY Never Miss an
Issue
Yes, I would like to subscribe to Insights Success Magazine.
Global Subscription Date :
Name : Address :
Telephone : Email :
City :
State :
Zip :
Country :
Check should be drawn in favor of: INSIGHTS SUCCESS MEDIA TECH LLC
CORPORATE OFFICE Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone: (614)-602-1754,(302)-319-9947 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com
Company Name
Management
Brief
CodeFirst codefirst.co.uk
Graham Church Founder
Codefirst is the leading provider of Agile custom software development in the UK.
DevCom devcom.com
Slavik Lavryk CEO
Devcom is a reliable software development partner for clients worldwide. The company comprehends what its clientele values in the services it provides.
Mastek mastek.com
John Owen CEO
Mastek is the trusted partner for digital transformation projects. Agile solutions for enterprise with end-to-end digital services delivered by experts.
PractiTest practitest.com
Yaniv Iny CEO
PractiTest is leading the revolution in technology and methodology offering Application Life Management and a Cloud-based Innovative Test Management tool.
Raman Technologies ramantech.com
Sandeep Nindra CEO
Raman Technologies is an international agile & management consulting firm that helps companies implement Blockchain strategy, innovate, and deliver value to the market and their customers.
SAHAJ sahajsoft.com
Akash Agarwal Co-founder
Sahaj Software Solutions is a premium software consulting and development company which believes in simplifying complexity.
ThoughtWorks thoughtworks.com
Guo Xiao CEO
ThoughtWorks is a leading company provides software design and delivers pioneering tools and consulting services.
Trigent Software trigent.com
Chella Palaniappan VP-Client Services
Trigent Software is an early pioneer in IT outsourcing and the offshore software development business.
W3villa Technologies w3villa.com
Ishank Gupta Director
W3villa Technologies is a software development company with a special focus on start-up and growth companies.
Zen Ex Machina Pty Ltd zenexmachina.com
Mia Horrigan CEO
Zen Ex Machina (ZXM) is a professional management consulting company that specializes in digital transformation, Agile coaching, and personnel training across government and commercial entities.
Using
AI to
Automatically Optimize
Cloud Costs T
he Birth of Cloud Computing
Back in the early days of cloud computing, if we would tell you that every business and consumer would eventually be running their entire compute and storage infrastructure digitally, we would sound crazy. But just 17 years later, it seems inevitable that the old world of data centers and on-premise servers will go the way of the physical newspaper and radio. Indeed, even Andy Jassy, CEO of AWS, didn’t envision this future back in 2000. At the time, Amazon was simply struggling to scale despite hiring a lot of new developers. Jassy, who was Amazon’s Chief of Staff at the time, dove into the problem to discover that the hardware and infrastructural needs simply were not being met fast enough. Jassy set out to speed up this process internally, allowing the internal R&D team to access a pool of common compute and storage resources, making it easier for each to launch their own projects without needing to deal with the underlying infrastructure. Eventually, at a team summit in 2003, they realized this was a need for every other company on the planet, and so AWS was born.
16
The birth of Spotinst: Rising cloud costs Today, there is a similar revolution beginning in the world of cloud computing. One still in its early stages, but seemingly destined to grow just as quickly as AWS. “Spotinst aims to be the largest provider of cloud infrastructure without running any servers,” says Amiram Shachar, CEO & Founder of Spotinst. The statement is bold on its own, but when you dive a bit deeper, not much bolder a claim than had you asked Andy Jassy the same back in 2003. Just as Jassy found an internal struggle today, Spotinst began with Shachar’s identification of a problem at his company, then Lycos Global Group. As Director of DevOps, Shachar was pressed with the task of migrating all Lycos’ servers to the cloud, but costs quickly jumped. “Within a couple of months of moving to the cloud, our costs had actually risen dramatically, way beyond any calculator that we used to predict it” continued Shachar. “To the point where we were actually planning to move everything back to on-premise.” Just around that time, Shachar encountered the relatively unused offering at AWS, called Spot Instances. Spot |September 2018|
Cloud Insights
Amiram Shachar Chief Executive OfďŹ cer Spotinst
About the CEO Amiram Shachar is CEO & Founder of Spotinst, which leverages excess cloud capacity to help customers save ~80% on cloud costs. Before Spotinst, he was Director of DevOps at Ybrant Media and led the Israeli Defense Forces migration to the cloud.
|September 2018|
17
Instances were spare server capacity at AWS, cleverly packaged to enable monetization of these servers. AWS offered these idle servers for massive 90% discounts with one major caveat - they’ll kick you off once a customer wants to pay full price for those servers. Shachar smelled opportunity. “By building algorithms that could predict the spare capacity terminations in advance, we could then migrate to another spare server beforehand, saving us 80% on our cloud costs.” After a few months, Shachar and his team were running nearly 75% of their compute power on AWS spare capacity. Just like Jassy back in 2003, the lightbulb eventually went off - there was a far larger opportunity at hand here. The virtual cloud: run code without dealing with cloud providers “All companies running on cloud struggle to keep costs down,” Shachar says. “But with a long list of priorities including security and maintaining site reliability, DevOps teams often don’t have the time to do all of the work required to optimize cost.” But while Spotinst’s first product was aimed at helping companies reliably leverage spare capacity to reduce costs, Shachar and his co-founders, Liran Polak and Aharon Twizer, had a bigger vision. Today, managing cloud infrastructure has become just as complex as running on-premises. With a plethora of new AWS, Google, and Azure offerings launching every month, along with an increasingly vast list of companies that build off these offerings, figuring out the balance between cost and performance is a major challenge. But, Shachar envisions a world where you don’t have to.
ensure that your applications are always running on the most cost-effective servers, given your performance requirements. Instead of exploring the long list of alternatives within and across the different cloud providers, Spotinst will take care of it all under the hood. Today, their platform recognizes any workload that could be run on a cheaper server. Just put those workloads under Spotinst’s control and their algorithms will take care of the rest - those workloads will forever run on the cheapest servers available. All without compromising performance or availability. Using a new Serverless offering, where developers can simply write code without dealing with any of the underlying infrastructure, Spotinst aims to deliver on this promise in a major way. “All you should ever have to do is write code,” says Shachar. “Our algorithms will make sure it is always running on the most cost-effective infrastructure, across all cloud providers, for your performance and availability needs.” In other words, just write the code, and Spotinst will make sure it always runs at the lowest cost possible for your performance needs. As Shachar says, “In 10 years, just as everyone is making the shift to cloud today, they will be making the shift to Serverless computing. Only with Spotinst, they’ll be able to also ensure they are paying the best possible price, all without doing anything.” The promise of companies all running a perfectly optimized cloud without ever dealing with the infrastructure seems bold. But as we learned from Jassy and AWS, in another 10-15 years, it may just be an inevitability.
The promise of the virtual cloud The promise of Shachar’s vision is simple at heart - a virtual cloud. Spotinst will leverage machine learning to
18
|September 2018|
CodeFirst: An Innovative Software Development Enterprise
innovative and value-added services while reducing operational costs. Most companies outsource software development to subcontractors or acquire readymade products from third parties. One of the most prominent names in this sector is CodeFirst, a leading software development company based in the city of Exeter in the UK. CodeFirst gives businesses instant access to the industry’s foremost software developers. It also excels at outsourcing services such as customized business software development and application maintenance. Many of the world’s most reputable brands, including Dell, IBM and Medtronic rely on CodeFirst’s range of products and services every day.
Graham Church Founder
S
oftware systems facilitate the automation of business processes across the world, and in virtually every industry. Their widespread appeal stems from the inherent ability of software to provide
20
Software Development Strategy CodeFirst wants to bridge the gap for companies that can benefit from a customized software solution but do not have the resources necessary to deliver a quality solution in-house. Their development methodology is a customized form of Scrum, characterized by one-week sprints that deliver working software to stakeholders as often as possible. The Kanban visual system is used to manage the workflow within each sprint while the end of every sprint
|September 2018|
Clients have unfettered access to the data at all times and are encouraged to get involved in Agile activities such as addressing the product backlog and prioritizing stories. CodeFirst has also created PlanITpoker, a revolutionary system for estimating backlogs. It was released for general use and has now emerged as one of the most popular Agile estimation systems, used by thousands of developers worldwide. Founder’s Journey Graham Church is the Founder of CodeFirst. He established the company in 2012 but has been part of the software development industry for over 20 years. In that time, Graham delivered custom software solutions across several industry verticals for clients that include Pfizer, Sony Ericsson, Prudential, ABB, and Lycos. Prior to CodeFirst, Graham worked as a consultant helping businesses to create and scale development teams. CodeFirst initially comprised a small but experienced team of software development experts. The first 8 years were marked by a series of challenges, which Graham concedes were difficult to overcome. However, he also acknowledges that those very challenges helped to transform CodeFirst into the powerhouse of innovation it is today.
The company has created and honed its own development system through the knowledge and experience gained from working on so many diverse projects. Thousands of developers use Agile tools created by CodeFirst every day to manage their own projects. CodeFirst believes that tightlycontrolled short sprints are the lynchpin of its record of delivering versatile software that works as promised. This approach contributes to superior control over project development and enhances the company’s ability to identify and address shortcomings or bottlenecks before they develop into critical issues. Perhaps most importantly, the sprints allow CodeFirst to gauge project velocity accurately and enables clients to track progress in near real time. Those clients include both software/IT professionals with a good understanding of Agile and others who are not familiar with the
‘‘
Key Methodology Agile software solutions lie at the core of CodeFirst’s methodology. |September 2018|
technology at all. The company tailors its procedures to each one, balancing the need for their comprehension of the process without overwhelming them with too much information. To improve collaboration and communication with their clients, CodeFirst has created a range of tools that range from simple dashboards with key project metrics to custom integrations with clients’ proprietary development systems. One of the essential differences between CodeFirst and most of its competitors is that it actively shares its internal systems with its clients. By foregoing secrecy in favor of transparency, the company creates an environment where clients can learn to control and accelerate their progress towards their respective goals. Having worked with companies of all sizes, ranging from startups to blue chips, CodeFirst has experimented with dozens of different software development methodologies. This is unusual for the industry and is a testament to CodeFirst’s commitment to flexibility; if a client wants to work a particular way, they are always willing to adapt. CodeFirst’s Strategy for the Future CodeFirst will continue to experiment, refine, and adapt its existing Agile development processes with new tools and methodologies. Part of this evolution includes the design and improvement of its own tools, some of which will be released for general use like PlanITpoker.
‘‘
is marked by a retrospective to discuss possible improvements.
We Build Software that Keeps Up with the Pace of Your Business.
21
s d n Tre
re a t ha
t
m r fo
S a a S
y ns e K Tra
g n i riv
D
22
in
n o i at
|September 2018|
Editor’s Pick
S
aaS or Software as a Service is a current phenomenon in the world of technology nowadays. It is an on demand, cloud-based delivery model for software applications. Over the years, SaaS has grown quite steadily. However, these solutions are becoming more and more popular nowadays, thanks to the advantages of cloud computing and rage of benefits it offers. When it comes to SaaS, a service provider hosts the application at a remote location, and the user can access that by using a webbrowser. With the years to come, usage of SaaS is only expected to grow even further. So, here we are listing out few trends that can eventually shape the industry later on. Considering the effectiveness of SaaS, it has grown ahead itself to something new termed as XaaS model (Everything as a service). Nowadays the majority of manufacturers and channel partners are using pay-as-you-go models to compute their organizations as they welcome the latest technology through cloud based services. It is believed that XaaS will bring more innovations to cloud-based businesses. According to the latest industry trends, few organizations are trying to migrate their data to cloud software and platform services. However, few of the companies are seeking for service resolutions in order to merge within the current infrastructure to make it better. With the presence of legacy systems and concerns related to data security, the responsibility completely lies on SaaS MSP, when it comes to full integration without leaking any critical data. With the constantly evolving technology market, soon DaaS (Data as a Service) will have a significant presence. The main idea of DaaS is to help organizations with the wide variety of cloud based data at very minimal cost so that organizations can become smarter when it comes to decisions related to strategy planning.
systems in 2017, among all the respondent’s 10 percent are currently beta-testing apps and 21 percent are looking to add team members with mobile application and device management skills. With the growing usage of mobility, organizations are saving costs, and now they can work remotely and can increase customer response time. Artificial Intelligence will play a big part soon. Last year, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Siri's Macbook debut brought AI personal experience within reach of people. The same trend can be anticipated this year when home enhancement and simplification is the key trend. For example, there will be developments in everyday activities such as switching on lights, opening, and closing of garage doors, switching sir conditioning on and off, etc. All these will be possible with the help of a smartphone. According to a recent study, till date, more than 75 percent enterprise don’t possess a complete organization cohesive cloud strategy. Without the clarity into what software employees are using for their day to day processes, CIOs are failing to regulate processes, create plans, and preserve a critical business data. So, to discover various shadow IT departments, soon SaaS discovery tools will function to alert organizations and to find solutions. Within a very short period, an increasing number of financially powerful cloud application MSP’s are advancing above the mark of $50 million mark. Which is eventually helping them to produce a surplus of venture capital firms who are on the lookout of making new investments. The result is an explosion in the sector of SaaS, however, soon the funding will become increasingly controversial. SaaS applications are easy fit for small businesses and startups, where deploying and managing on-premise infrastructure is not a great idea. According to recent research, more than 6,000 European organizations, which range from pre-startups to established small businesses found many growth options. Whereas more than 64 percent of the survey respondents were already using the cloudbased software. By 2017, the percentage is expected to grow up to 78 percent. As per the research, financial management, project management, customer management, and marketing are the key areas where the organizations are seeking support from SaaS vendors.
Security will play a very important role in the upcoming days. With the rise of smartphone users, now cyber offenders have multiple entry points for security breaches, exposing personal and enterprise networks. As mentioned, remote working exposes employees to public open spaces with unencrypted networks making them more vulnerable to various threats. Nowadays malware can be injected in all kind of devices, which can eventually intercept the transferred data leaving more to be protected. So, with more and more innovations one can easily expect increased So, here are some of the key trends of SaaS, that can security solutions in the upcoming years. eventually change the market. However, we still expect more and more SaaS companies to expand their limits and Soon smartphone-friendly apps are going to be norm in move into different segments while evolving from single the industry. Thanks to the growing usage of smartphones product services to platforms. and tablets amongst the employees and customers. According to recent survey, 35 percent of respondents said that they are planning to increase spending on mobile |September 2018|
23
Decoding Digital Transformation for Utilities M
assive technology changes, never seen or experienced before are revolutionizing the businesses with advent of the new wave of digital innovation. From cloud computing to mobility, to big data analytics, IoT, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, these technologies have completely transformed the business landscape irrespective of the industry— banking, retail, telecom or utility alike. The pace of this technological advancement is growing exponentially, establishing new business models and creating tectonic shifts in market dynamics. The technology-savvy and digitally connected customers of today are further forcing businesses to take cognizance of their preferences, expectations and consumption trends. Unless business aligns their approach and processes with this customercentric approach, survival may be thwarted in the competitive landscape. Today, the energy and utility industry grapples with its unique set of challenges comprising aging infrastructure, workforce retention and recruitment, widening demand-supply deficit, evolving regulatory mandates,
26
stricter environmental compliances, need to increase grid resilience, and economic and social ramifications. Ultimately, utilities face the risk of disintermediation of their relationship with the customer, allowing new entrants to capture the value, while they are left holding the costs. For utilities to meet these challenges while delivering quality service and sustaining their financial viability, it is paramount to reexamine their approach technology and digitalization. While the traditional energy and utility industry had been a relatively slow adopter of technology compared to other sectors, nonetheless, it has picked up pace in last couple of years. The energy and utility companies today are beginning to comprehend the value of digital innovation and its impact on improving their operational efficiencies, boosting service levels, reducing costs and most importantly on increasing customer satisfaction. This has led them to explore the opportunities extended by adopting latest technologies such as cloud, mobile, big data, predictive analytics, IoT, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics and others. The industry is now quick to leverage latest
innovations to modernize processes, gain efficiencies and gain customer confidence. By adopting a “mobile-first” strategy, the utilities can enable real-time connectivity with customers and their workforce alike – from anywhere, anytime and using any device. This has empowered customers who can easily manage or monitor their real-time and historic usage, and make better choices based on data-backed insights. They can conveniently plan and manage their bills and payments with increased ease and flexibility. The utilities can use mobile technology to become proactive in sending alerts, notifications and personalized communication to the customers. It can also boost the workforce productivity and efficiency by equipping them with on-the-go updates using mobile devices. Driving customer engagement can help utility increase customers’ adoption for energy efficiency and water conservation programs. This in turn is a win-win for both – the customers who save on resources as well as on bills, and even the utility which is able to manage peak loads and optimizing resources; thereby also meeting the state mandates.
|September 2018|
Digi Transformation
About The Author Eric Dresselhuys is the President at Smart Energy Water (SEW). He has been contributing in the energy, utility and infrastructure industry for 20 years. With his domain know-how, technical expertise and business acumen, Eric is responsible for the overall strategic outlook and business development at SEW. Over the years he has played a leading role working with utilities across 5 continents to help guide their digital transformation . Eric is a well-known speaker thought leader across the energy, utility and infrastructure industries.
Eric Dresselhuys President Smart Energy Water
However, this digital shift poses another set of complexities for utility industry – huge quantum of customer data, lack of in-house technical expertise, implementation risks, integration complexities and ongoing support concerns. Thus, for utilities, the adoption of technology and solutions necessitates a strategic outlook rather than tactical detours focused on quick fixes. The industry must carefully assess and evaluate the “build vs. buy” adage to be able to deploy technology or solutions which are a best-fit for their business requirements and are also cost-effective and efficient. They must look for solutions that can easily integrate with existing legacy systems, require minimal deployment cost and can deliver faster returns on investment. Since, customers today are prime drivers of change; another important consideration for the utility industry must be customer adoption rate. The customers are doubtlessly more technology savvy today, but adoption rate depends upon how user-friendly a platform is, and does it offer self-service capabilities. Similarly, how quickly and easily the utility workforce can familiarize with the solution and can use it address customer concerns. Carefully weighing these considerations can help the industry truly leverage the emerging technologies and thrive on the wave of digitalization.
|September 2018|
The acceleration of digital transformation in the utility industry has predictably driven an upsurge in the number of service providers offering technologies to address these needs, each with their unique value proposition, but generally focused on only a small sub-set of the overall challenge. Thus, the utility companies must be cautious while identifying their digital transformation partners’ basis not just the technical competencies but also ensures both are aligned in terms of long-term architectural compliance and are driven by a shared goal to build the utility’s primacy with its customers. As more and more utilities adapt and adopt emerging technologies, CIOs have an important role to play as they must carefully balance long-term and short-term deployment decisions. With the evolving utility-customer relationship, they must probe areas where digital can help them strengthen relationship with customers, while improving operations, bridging organizational siloes, and developing topline opportunities. Indeed, digital transformation opens arrays of opportunities for utilities, but, success will require a significant investment in new talent and capabilities, and careful prioritization.
27
DevCom: Delivering Distinctive Software Solutions Globally DevCom with a mission of transforming small business into smart business. Established in 2000, DevCom is a reliable software development partner for clients worldwide. The company comprehends what its clientele values in the services it provides. Its custom software development is based on the latest software technologies adjoined with solid quality assurance. Moreover, DevCom is a truly customer-centric company putting customer satisfaction in front of it all. Finally, DevCom is a know-it-all company using all the available software languages ranging from Java, JavaScript, and PHP to C#, C++. A Resolute Leader
Slavik Lavryk CEO
S
oftware has been known to be disrupting the ways we interact with devices. Be it an AI powered smartphone or an office Xerox machine, without software, every device would be deprived of power. The current digital decade has witnessed an explosive ascension of the software industry along with the innovative solutions it entails. Software solution providers, on a global scale, strive to reform the market with breakthrough software tools and solutions. One such exceptional organization striving and thriving in the software development sector is,
28
Slavik Lavryk is the CEO of DevCom since 2016. He holds a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Slavik possess exceptional expertise in OOP, Scrum and Agile Methodologies. He has had a lifelong relationship with DevCom. He made his way to the position of CEO by starting as a software engineer at DevCom 15 years ago. Currently, Slavik leads the company in its outsourcing efforts. He focuses the company efforts on long-term partnerships and customer success. He also manages to find balance between flexibility and discipline making the company culture well-adjusted to change. Disruptive Services DevCom possesses the capabilities to use different agile software development methods on demand from its clients. These methods may include continuous development practices, mobile agile and agile in the clouds. The development practice of agile in the clouds is the most |September 2018|
common method used at DevCom. The method employs one or more cloud environments uniting the company team with the customers.
DevCom provides four primary services under its software development offerings, viz, Web Development, Custom Software Development, Mobile Application Development, and Software Support. A brief description of these services is as follows: •
Web Development: DevCom assures a definite success of its clients’ projects with its responsive and agile approach to web development and design. The company develops fast and progressive web apps to enhance businesses. Its clients receive a responsive web solution, adapting easily to any mobile device and providing a smooth user experience on every platform. The in-house developers can build a website using the most suitable CMS. One can choose either a ready-to-use CMS platform like WordPress and Magento or create a custom one using a PHP framework.
•
•
Custom Software Development: DevCom holds expertise in creating any custom-tailored solution, clients need. The company assures to transform regular businesses into digital ones. One can trust the digital transformation to DevCom, whatever size the company is, an SME, an enterprise or a startup. It develops responsive solutions for any platform needed. Developing a custom-tailored software solution adapting easily to all the possible devices, mobile, tablet and PC is the company’s forte. Cloud solutions, AI & Machine Learning, and Big Data & Business Intelligence are other solutions provided by DevCom under Custom Software Development. Mobile Application Development: Upon a client’s request, DevCom can develop either a quick-to-do cross-platform app or a wellgroomed native app for Android, iOS or Windows. It develops easyto-use mobile apps for any
‘‘
Along with these services, DevCom also provides custom e-learning and e-commerce platform solutions, and also creation or improvisation of clients’ CRM and ERP systems.
|September 2018|
We aim at transforming small business into smart business.
•
Software Support: DevCom assures software support at every stage of its clients’ technological journey by functioning as a safety net. The company always makes sure its clients receive high-quality software. One can employ its thorough QA experts for manual or automated testing to receive a bugfree product. DevCom’s top priority is to make digital assets safe from harm. Penetration testing, security monitoring, general security management and secure development services and also consulting DevOps, Data & Application Integration are provided under DevCom’s software support.
Envisioning a Bright Future Agile methodologies provide outstanding and swift results making projects shine. Moreover, the share of enterprises using agile software solutions is on the rise opening new markets to DevCom. According to Collabnet Versionone report, the share of agile-first companies rose from 8 to 25 % since 2016.
‘‘
Agile in the clouds method employs virtualized infrastructure like AWS, Azure or Jira. These tools bring a lot of benefits to DevCom’s clients and assure the success of their projects. The company firstly produces and configures development and testing environments. Secondly, the virtualized infrastructure enhances communication with its clients and makes agile sprints way more effective. The tools finally make the company’s agile software development solutions faster and bug-free.
platform. The company’s experts create business apps to increase productivity and can build software for time tracking, project management, team communications or any other business need. Personal Care & Productivity apps, Maps & Navigation apps, and Social Media Apps are a few of DevCom’s expertise areas.
DevCom differs from its competitors in its flexible approach. “We are ready to use any viable agile method for our client’s project. In the future, we may be switching to continuous agile support of our clients’ projects. This will definitely enhance our client support experience,” states Slavik.
29
Data Center Security: Controlling Possible Threats
T
he rise in cyber-crimes is one of the main causes of Data center outages. As per the recent survey conducted by industry insiders, cyber-crime caused 22 percent data center outages in 2015 opposed to 2 percent outages in 2010. Adding to all these, now most of the data centers are re-evaluating their security policies after the recent WannaCry ransomware attack. Data center outages cause companies to loss revenue in many ways. However, the costliest loss is service interruption and loss of IT productivity. So, the organizations are now realizing that traditional security is no longer secure enough to secure any data center. A recent study has found that 83 percent of traffic travels east/west within the data center, which stays undetected by the perimeter security. In this environment, when an attacker infiltrates the perimeter firewall, then can jump across the system with ease, extract information and compromise valuable data. Additionally, data centers can fail due to trespassers or a terrorist attack or by natural calamities. So, how can one secure a data center in the best way possible from any kind of cyber threat? Don’t worry we’ve got you covered, with the points below. As the first step, one should Map the Data Center and flag the hackers within the virtual and physical infrastructure. The CSOs and CIOs with a system map of their systems can react to any suspicious activity and take steps to stop data breaches. Being able to visualize different traffic patterns within a network helps to understand threats, that eventually elevates the level of security. Understanding and measurement of traffic flow within the data center boundary are very important. In the case of
30
any interruption in traffic across east/west vs north/south, protected vs unprotected one can get to know about a threat. Additionally, vulnerable zones and unprotected traffic need to be monitored for a better result. Firewall rules need to be defined and implemented as per requirements. Additionally, one should allow traffic only after thorough verification and selectively allow communication to ensure maximum protection. The key is to identify, what;s legal and secured and what can be blocked to enhance security. One needs to Build a Team with executives who understand how traffic flows within the premises and can access & secure information, take necessary measures to secure important assets along with the implementation of roadblocks for the attackers. Security must move as fast as a data center’s technology adoption and integration. Security Strategy Should Change Alongside the Technology and it should not be treated as an add-on option. Additionally, businesses also should ensure that their virus protection, signatures other protection features are up to date for better protection. Businesses should Identify and Place Controls over highvalue assets, which will help to reduce risk. However, older security solutions are completely blind to new threats, new security companies have produced latest solutions that protect data in the virtual world. Access Restriction also needs to be imposed. Every business should thoroughly check a person’s background before giving the access to a prized possession. Access to the main site and the loading bay must be limited, additionally, two-factor authentications and fortified
|September 2018|
Industry Insight
interiors with security guards and roving patrols would help to safeguard the employees and the data center. Installing Surveillance Cameras around the data center, alongside removing signs which may provide clues to its function helps to locate an intruder. A buffer zone between the data center and all the entry points will limit unlawful trespassing to a great extent. Additionally, the data center needs to be far away from the main road and it should not have any windows other than administrative purposes for better security. A data center should Check Test Back-Up Systems regularly as prescribed by the manufacturer. It should also ensure to make a list and of Do’s and Don’ts in the event of an attack. Recovery plans and security plans also need to be checked thoroughly. Data centers are always a Soft Target for The Terrorists, as an attack on them can disrupt and damage major business and communication infrastructure. So, security needs to be taken seriously and to do that proactive steps should be taken to limit the impact of a terrorist attack. Trained Security Guards needs to be posted inside a data center and they should be well trained. Security officers must undergo strict site-specific training to monitor surveillance footage. Depending on the size of data center and the number of security cameras multiple security officers may be required on duty. Security officers dedicated to inspecting surveillance footage helps when it comes to securing a data center. Disaster Recovery is very much important, that must be in place. If the data center stops functioning after an attack or natural calamity, it must have a way to restore operations as soon as possible. To be ready for a disaster and to evaluate the disaster recovery plan, it’s necessary to train staffs well and experience simulated disasters. To avoid these obstacles, one needs a fair bit of knowledge of new security systems, solid plans, and comprehensive visibility. The more work a data center can do up front in the above-mentioned areas the better the chances of success with lesser outages.
|September 2018|
31
PractiTest: Transforming Test Management Tool to the Next Level
An Israel-based company, PractiTest is leading the revolution in technology and methodology offering Application Life Management and a Cloud-based Innovative Test Management tool. The company provides an end-to-end Test Management tool which offers a common platform for all stakeholders in an organization. It also enables full visibility into the testing process and deeper broader understanding of testing results. PractiTest provides fully customizable tools which can be adapted to the ever-changing needs of Quality Assurance (QA) teams. It also includes a vast array of third-party integration with common bug trackers and automation tools and robust API for the rest. Fast professional and methodological support ensures clients avail maximum efficiency, so companies can release great products according to their user’s needs. Offering Unified Solutions
Yaniv Iny CEO
PractiTest is a QA Management platform, designed to help businesses to control their testing and development process. The solution focuses on both effective management of the project and its information and also how to communicate the results of testing to everyone in the organization. The system can get the result from almost any Automation or Scripting Tools such as Selenium, J-unit, Soap-UI, QTP, Ranorex, and others.
I
n today’s technology world, companies are dedicatedly working on developing and testing software which provides the entire spectrum of functions and services in the traditional software delivery lifecycle. In today’s economic world, these service providers are becoming more competitive.
34
Insights of a Leader with Technology Expertise Yaniv Iny is the CEO of PractiTest. He is also in-charge of Marketing, and R&D for PractiTest. Yaniv has over 20 years of experience in the field of Innovation and Technology. |September 2018|
Ensuring Best Testing Tool for Seamless Integration PractiTest integration includes all testing information at once central place. There are some methods majorly used for seamless integration such as, Ÿ
Ÿ
Ÿ
Ÿ
JIRA Test Management – This method offers end to end Test Management Solution for TwoWay Integration with JIRA Cloud & JIRA Server. PractiTest’s powerful two-way integration for all JIRA platforms provides a seamless test management, QA, and development process solution. Pivotal Tracker Test Management – It includes an end to end Test Management Solution for Pivotal Tracker which provides a powerful Test Management Solution, enhancing advanced Agile Project Management functionality.
Setting Benchmark in the Market
Using Unique Hierarchical Structure Being a light SaaS QA Management Tool PractiTest was designed for the Agile process. Hierarchical filter trees structure, combined with customizable visibility and seamless integration create a unique data organization that allows a user to slice and dice his data to extract real actionable items. The platform can work with external tools such as Bug Trackers, Automated Testing Tools, CI and many more which is sometimes crucial for the agile workflow. PractiTest provides benefits to its clients through unified Test Management Tools such as display information in multiple ways at once, providing relevant information to each stakeholder and duplicate data or generating complex Database queries easily.
‘‘
Redmine Integration - PractiTest’s Redmine plugin is used to synchronize the issues and tests. This integration method is simple and is automatically updated with issues arising during testing with PractiTest. Bugzilla Integration - Standard Bugzilla integration works like all other PractiTest integrations. It works when tester clicks on the Fail & Issue link in a test run, it will open a new bug form in Bugzilla.
|September 2018|
Taking business to the next level with uni ed Test Management to the next level.
The company is stepping up with a unique approach to enclose organization data using unique features available only to PractiTest users. PractiTest treats its clients as partners and helps them achieve their goals, including methodological help and the best responsive support. This has been made possible by the inspirational approach PractiTest has adopted over its development period. PractiTest is inspired by changing needs of the market. The company has always changed its approaches according to the technology and trends in the Test Management Process. The company also believes a tester must be an inherent part of the development process from the very beginning to the very end to be able to reflect quality issues throughout the process. CEO of the company, Yaniv Iny stated, “We believe that a tester’s job is not about finding bugs, but about assuring quality.” Stepping Towards Future of Test Management PractiTest started its journey as little company with a big vision to make the life of the QA professionals better and easier. With a lot of team effort and devotion to the goal & mission, the PractiTest Team always put the client first and sees the clients as its true partners.
‘‘
Yaniv is an MBA graduate from Tel Aviv University with a focus in Strategy and Finance. He also has an extensive experience under his belt of building startups and contributing to the overall development of established companies. Having experience in Management Consulting firm, he helps small companies to enlarge, evolve and become successful.
Now, PractiTest is working on new features to enable more possibilities for Data Management and Visualization. In the coming future, the company’s unified tools will become a point of communication and clearance to all project stakeholders to get better Test Management output.
35
Rising Mobile Workforce and its
Challenges in the
Mobile-Cloud Era: Data & Endpoint Management
M
obility and cloud computing are rapidly becoming the norm for enterprises around the world. In turn, enterprise IT departments are facing new management and security challenges as the amount of business data soars and the number of endpoints explodes. The question that is doing the rounds is what IT teams need to consider to manage and secure their businesses in this new era.
Mathivanan V Vice President ManageEngine
36
Industry analysts predict deep penetration of enterprise mobility by the year 2020. IDC, for instance, forecasts |September 2018|
Tech Perspective that mobile workers will account for almost 75 percent of the total workforce in the U.S. Meanwhile, Strategy Analytics projects that the global mobile workforce will reach 1.75 billion users and account for 42 percent of the global workforce overall. The economic perspective is just as bright as a button. The global enterprise mobility market will be worth as much as $140 billion, predicts the National Association of Software and Services Companies. And the investments are paying off. To date, 84 percent of all companies who consider themselves on the cutting edge of mobility report an increase in overall productivity as a direct result of incorporating mobile apps into their business, according to a survey by AppsFreedom.
More troubling, the typical end user has little knowledge of those threats or their ramifications. The result is more users are more likely to leak enterprise data by using compromised websites and rogue online services. The CVE listed 14,712 cybersecurity vulnerabilities for 2017 and has already listed 2,848 for the first two months of 2018. In response, vendors large and small are releasing patches on a daily basis. Enterprise IT teams clearly need to focus on endpoint security management to ensure business success in the mobile-cloud era. Endpoint Security Challenges
Likewise, enterprises are expected to continue relentlessly adopting cloud technologies. By 2020, Gartner forecasts the public cloud services market will reach $383 billion. This includes spending on cloud business process services, cloud application infrastructure services, cloud application services, cloud management and security services, cloud system infrastructure services, and of course, cloud advertising.
Keeping endpoints up to date with the latest versions of their OSes and applications has become a full-time job, one that is getting harder to perform in the mobile enterprise. A growing challenge is the diversity of endpoint operating systems that must be managed, including Android, iOS, MacOS, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS. For each, the IT team must learn that OS along with its corresponding patching technique. Likewise, applications acquired from the various app stores are managed with different techniques that must be learned and mastered so that the team can secure the endpoints.
The flip side of increasing enterprise mobility and cloud usage is the increasing risk to enterprise security. Today, most users have at least two endpoints – a laptop and mobile device – and 80 percent of network devices are be endpoints that are constantly connected to the internet and exposed to its threats such as Meltdown, Spectre, Wannacry, and Petya.
Another challenge is managing the endpoints from day one, especially mobile devices. While it’s been relatively easy for IT admins to install agent software on desktops and laptops, smart phones and other mobile devices make life harder for the admins because the devices are rarely if ever connected to the corporate network. Consequently, devices must be provisioned with the
|September 2018|
necessary mobile device management software before they are given to end users. Devices that are not appropriately managed are security risks, so no business application should be installed or run on them. Related to the day-one management challenge is updating endpoints that are on the go, anytime and anywhere. IT teams must be able to install critical patches while employees are traveling, commuting, or otherwise offsite. Data leakage presents yet another security challenge for IT teams to overcome. Data leakage can happen with or without the users’ knowledge. For instance, users may knowingly copy business data to a USB device or upload it to a cloud storage service. They may also unknowingly expose that data to a public cloud service when using third-party apps such as document viewers and predictive keyboard apps. Such apps may compromise user IDs and passwords, account numbers, and other sensitive enterprise data by exposing it to public cloud services. When a user’s device is lost or stolen, the IT team must be able to track and recover the device or wipe the data if the device isn’t recovered. To maintain the user’s privacy, however, the IT team can not continuously track the location of the user’s device. BYOD presents another privacy vs security challenge: When users use their own devices for business purposes, privacy needs to be maintained. Photos, contacts, and other personal data should not be
37
managed by company’s mobile device management app. On the other hand, security needs to be maintained, too. To that end, the IT team should create a container on the user’s personal device – a secure, managed area that isolates business email, CRM, and other enterprise apps and data from the rest of user’s personal apps/data. To establish strong endpoint security and prevent unwanted attacks, IT teams must apply strict security policies on their endpoints. Laptops, for instance, should always run a firewall, prevent the creation of unwanted network shares, and encrypt data via BitLocker or FileVault. Such security policies can protect enterprises from the security risks posed by mobility. Predicting The Development Of Data And Endpoint Management Going forward, machine learning and AI will help make data and endpoint management a proactive, rather than a reactive process. For instance, these technologies could prevent data theft by detecting anomalies such as unusual login activities or an unusually large number of documents being uploaded to the cloud. They could analyze the root cause of patch deployment failures and suggest fixes. They could also detect system idle times – during lunch hours, for instance – to deploy patches as
38
soon as possible rather wait until after hours or weekends, which can leave systems unnecessarily vulnerable. Meanwhile, the internet of things (IoT) will introduce many organizations to a new breed of endpoints and connected devices. Unlike their iOS- and Androidpowered predecessors, IoT devices will be running many different OSes and applications, all of which may be vulnerable yet must be managed and secured. Finally, most business applications are moving to the cloud and accessed via browser, effectively making the browser an endpoint. That means to defend against attacks, IT teams need to manage browsers and perform all security operations for them just as if they were desktops, laptops, or any other device. As organizations continue to adopt mobility and the cloud, they must also adopt the practices necessary to support this new reality. Data and endpoint security and management are priority one in IT departments. For the vast majority of companies around the world, their future success depends on recognizing and committing to that priority.
|September 2018|
Zen Ex Machina: Leading Large Organizations with Business Agility
ZXM has coached over 65 teams across 20 organizations and trained over 600 people over the last five years. Its Agile coaches and trainers are experienced practitioners who have worked with government departments and agencies to help organizations, portfolios, programs, and teams perform as effectively as possible. With offices in Australia and New Zealand, ZXM counts among its clients the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Department of Industry and Innovation, the Department of Human Services, Origin Energy, Nestle, and eBay. ZXM uses Agile frameworks and user-centered design techniques to work collaboratively with clients to solve complex business problems.
Mia Horrigan CEO
Z
en Ex Machina (ZXM) is a professional management consulting company that specializes in digital transformation, Agile coaching, and personnel training across government and commercial entities. ZXM helps the government and corporate world improve their digital products and services by using Agile, Lean and UX techniques.
40
An Interesting Journey ZXM started with a focus primarily on customer experience, and digital product design and development. Digital transformation is a major area of concern for the company’s clients, and ZXM’s experience in both the human and technology sides of modern product development puts them in a strong position to deliver this change. After ZXM’s first few engagements, several clients expressed keen interest in the Agile frameworks the company used in its own projects. It was from these early conversations that ZXM’s agile coaching and digital transformation services were developed; they now represent its biggest service delivery area in the global marketplace. ZXM quickly became a pioneer in adapting behavioral science models from psychology to assist its clients with |September 2018|
These frameworks still underpin the company’s consulting services from Agile coaching and training to digital agility and project, program and portfolio management. Combined with 21st century digital, Agile and design thinking techniques have made ZXM learn faster, deliver better, and continuously improve their practice. ZXM faced challenges during its initial growth in the business world as Agile services. The company worked through the global financial crisis with clients who had similar values and this helped them to build deep trusted relationships that they have continued to maintain. While change is the one constant that often adversely impacts many modern organizations, ZXM has learnt to continuously improve and adapt its skills to meet the evolving needs of their clients, and embrace new and complex challenges.
methods, tools, and practices into Agile processes. This includes the ‘Definition of Done’, and how best to describe and define a Minimal Viable Product (MVP). Additionally, ZXM consultants provide pragmatic advice on best-practice Agility based on practical experience across Scrum, Lean, Kanban, and scaled frameworks like Nexus and SAFe.
Mia Horrigan (CEO), Matthew Hodgson (CIO) and Kai Koenig (CTO).
A key element in ZXM’s approach to support its clients in achieving the best outcomes is capability and knowledge development, and focus delivery of value based products through the use of user-centered design methods, including Design Thinking, combined with Agile frameworks such as Scrum to drive improvement cadence and Lean to improve efficiency.
Mia has worked with Agile teams for over 10 years and is an experienced Product Manager and Scrum Master. She has been successful in delivering business outcomes and value through the successful implementation of Agile/Scrum at both team and enterprise level.
An Experienced Leader Zen Ex Machina (ZXM) is a professional management services consultancy established in 2011 by
‘‘
Committed to Enhancement One of the leading causes of failure of Agile initiatives is a lack of experience in implementing the frameworks and practices. ZXM aims to improve the agility of its clients’ program teams. It primly focuses on building capability and enablement through coaching support that enable teams to adapt the trends of their industry with foremost agility. ZXM’s efficient frameworks enable its Agile consultants to focus on the creation of Agile capabilities and organizational change with enterprise clients, and support the digital transformation of public services for the government sector. The company places particular emphasis on developing digital services that meet the DTA’s Digital Service Standard by integrating UCD |September 2018|
Agility is our passion as it encourages incremental improvement through transparency, inspection and adaptation, strong leadership, and a disciplined use of frameworks such as Scrum to achieve goals quickly and collaboratively with business and with stakeholders.
Mia Horrigan is an experienced Program Manager with over 15 years of experience as a senior executive leading and implementing software solutions, including digital transformations.
Over the years Mia has specialized in Agile/Scrum Coaching and Training, which includes business engagement with senior executives, program boards and stakeholders. She has also developed strategies and roadmaps for Digital Transformations programs. Mia has extensive experience in Program and Service Delivery management, and in leading and managing teams of consultants, project teams, and operational staff. Market-Leading Agile Solutions ZXM strives to build a strong, collaborative relationship with each of its clients. Agile methods are at the core of its practice. It has grown significantly over the past two years and now has the depth of capability to support its large enterprise clients with effective digital services and other futuristic solutions.
‘‘
Agile adoption, change management and digital transformation. The challenge with cultural change areas is a perpetual issue for many of ZXM’s clients.
The company’s core values are simplicity, agility, collaboration and sustainability – values that underpin their versatile solutions. This focus on business value and users over just technology change is one of the reasons ZXM is a leading brand in the delivery of Agile services in this highly competitive digital age.
41
Wireless Charging: Future of Green Automotive
T
ill now we have witnessed about wireless charging for electronic gadgets and devices only, but now we can also charge electric bikes, cars and buses wirelessly. Imagine that, we are driving on highway and our car’s battery drains. Now, instead of finding a fuel pump, electric power source, adapter, cable, etc. we just have to stop or park our car on wireless charging platform for short time, available at any shopping complex or food malls, again no need to come-out of the car, besides anyone’s assistance. This is really an amazing idea and this is going to true. History Electromagnetic Induction, which dates to inventors such as Michael Faraday in the year 1831 and Joseph Henry in the year 1832. Faraday was the first to publish the results of his experiments. Nikola Tesla utilized electromagnetic energy to transmit the power between two coils in the early 1900s. Faraday’s law of induction is a basic law of electromagnetism forecasting how a magnetic field will interact with an electric circuit and produces an electromotive force (EMF)—a phenomenon called electromagnetic induction. It is the fundamental working principle of transformers, inductors, and many types of electrical motors, generators, solenoids and wireless charging. Functioning Working of wireless charging is nearly same as ‘electric transformer’, but difference is in application only—Transformers are used to increase or decrease the alternating voltages in electric power applications through electromagnetic induction and Wireless Charger are used to transfer energy between two objects using electromagnetic field. How exactly it Works Electric vehicle (EV) with wireless charging is having secondary coil fitted at bottom of vehicle and primary coil is securely installed on ground (i.e. charging platform).
42
The basic wireless charging system needs two coils. The primary coil, encased in a pad that sits on the floor of a garage or parking platform, is connected to a power source. Alternating current flows from an outlet into the coil, set up an electromagnetic field that enables the power to jump to a secondary coil in a pad attached to the bottom of the vehicle. When the vehicle parks in the proper position over the primary coil pad, an indicator light goes on and charging begins. The two coils must be facing within about 8 inches of each other for effective charging. Pre-eminence over Cable Charging Wireless Charging gives a convenient, safe, and reliable way to charge and power electrical vehicles at home, in the workplace and in industry. Wireless power maintains safe, continuous, and reliable transfer of power for all types of electric vehicles. Wireless charging eliminates the use of physical connectors and cables. It provides a number of efficiency, cost and safety pre-eminence over the traditional charging cable. This make possible to install it anywhere like; on the side of highways, parking lots, malls, multiplexes, toll plazas, etc. Experts predict more powerful wireless stations will be like to appear at office buildings, shopping centers and restaurants. When anyone parks vehicle at office or at restaurant it will get charged automatically in that space of time. Due to this effortless frequent power availability and safety, a vehicle does not need large batteries unlike for conventional cable charging. It makes vehicle light and compact, that tends to increase overall efficiency of vehicle. Plug-in stations can be easily damaged in crowded metro cities. A number of municipalities have reported problems that thieves have cut EV charging cables to steal the copper from the wires. High-powered Level 3 stations, also called DC fast-charge, have large cables, which make them even more attractive to thieves. |September 2018|
Recharging Environment
“Imagine wireless electric-vehicle charging being as easy and widespread as Wi-Fi is today,” said Chris Borroni-Bird, former director of advanced technology vehicle concepts for General Motors and who is a vice president of strategic development at Qualcomm Technologies. Implementation is in Progress Wireless charging technology is almost ready for the big stage. It is on the verge of initial deployment, starting from the Mercedes-Benz S500e plug-in hybrid sedan next year. They plan to fit wireless charging on the S500e plug-in hybrid sedan in 2017. BMW is also working together with Mercedes-Benz on the technology, to develop a wireless charging system for its i3 electric vehicle and i8 plug-in hybrid. A prototype test version, made by Qualcomm technologies, is already in use in the BMW i8 safety car in the Formula E electric-vehicle race series. Qualcomm has exhibited its Halo system in various vehicles, including the Drayson B12/69 electric racing car.
|September 2018|
Evatran’s Plugless aftermarket system is now commercially available for the LEAF and the Volt, and a Model S- compatible version is likely to come. Several major automakers have indicated that they’re working on offering wireless charging for future EVs. Tesla is also on the way of introducing its EV’s with wireless charging. It is also already being piloted by some community bus systems. Buses need to take number of stoppage in city. A wireless charger can be installed on a stopping platform— tends to reduce size of batteries— will improve efficiency electric bus. Wireless charging technology is really amazing as invention of electric current. It is interesting to see how it will put back the conventional fossil fuel powered vehicle with clean, green, safe, silent and efficient electric vehicles with wireless charging for healthy future of planet Earth.
43
The
Evolution of
Testing: Unmatched Acceleration with Fifth Generation Automation
Shoeb Javed CTO Worksoft
T
he Early Years of Packaged Applications
From the inception of packaged applications, companies of all sizes have taken advantage of the economies of building, maintaining, changing and deploying functionality through third party software providers. Why build a general ledger or payroll/human resources system when you can license it instead? Why not leverage out of the box functionality offered by third party software and rely on the vendor to
46
offer support and maintenance and stay current on regulatory, industry and process best practices. The first generation of mainframe software transformed quickly as the technology evolved, introducing client-server as the better, more cost-effective deployment platform. The applications themselves were still being developed and deployed in functional silos – their interaction with other critical functions of the business an after-thought. Although less than ideal, interfaces were developed to transport data
|September 2018|
Tech Outlook from one system to the next – leading to the introduction of middle-ware as an economical means of “connecting” the silos. At that time, SAP emerged as the leader in delivering comprehensive, end-to-end business solutions on the most advanced platforms. They quickly captured the market and cross-industry adoption continued to deliver best in class results to their customers. PeopleSoft was also introduced to the market during this era, initially focusing on the payroll/human resources market. They ultimately started developing and delivering ERP and CRM systems as well. Change continued to accelerate as web-based systems were introduced which impacted the economic and technological dynamics of “user requirements,” development, deployment, and costs. Throughout this evolution, industries, companies and individuals not only developed an incredible reliance on the performance of their “systems,” but forward thinking organizations saw this as a quick path to competitive advantage. The Need for Speed The problem then as now – how do you accelerate the value of the technology investment to the business? The technology was purchased, licensed, and implemented to achieve a specific set of business benefits. When it comes to these large enterprise application investments, companies conduct in-depth evaluations and build business cases to map out exactly what results they expect to realize. This typically involves a look at what financial and human capital investments – time and money – will be needed to achieve success with a product as well as the financial, efficiency, and competitive gains that come with the ongoing use of the software. On one side of the equation, development methods have evolved to meet this need for speed. Waterfall methodologies are being replaced with Agile. DevOps has become the new buzz-word. But there’s something else to consider – the business side of things. There is an everincreasing reliance on packaged applications to execute and deliver critical business outcomes. It’s important that applications are developed and deployed quickly and changes can be made regularly, but how do you ensure that business processes are running flawlessly? Surprisingly, many companies are managing their enterprise application processes manually. This means hours of white|September 2018|
board meetings spent trying to understand existing business processes. Weeks during every project spent writing test scripts that break when something changes. Delays in delivery because manual testing can’t keep pace with business change. The implementation and ongoing management of enterprise applications is complex, and a crucial component is making sure that end-to-end processes work-every time, every day. Manual or first generation testing means system downtime, errors in production, wasted time and energy and companies left open to technology risk. The bigger picture is that those approaches are fundamentally standing in the way of achieving the results companies set out to achieve with packaged apps. How can you make the financial, productivity, and competitive gains
About the Author Shoeb Javed, Chief Technology Ofcer, Worksoft, is responsible for the technology strategy, software development, quality assurance and customer support for all Worksoft solutions. As CTO, Shoeb also works with quality assurance and business leaders of some of the largest global Fortune 1000 corporations to help automate testing of complex packaged enterprise applications to speed up project timelines and improve operational efciencies. 47
that you were counting on if your processes aren’t performing flawlessly? The Evolution of Testing Thankfully, the answer is today’s fifth generation test automation that is enabling business users and organizations to adopt, accept, and utilize new applications faster. When processes across enterprise applications are executed seamlessly and as designed, companies can harness the potential of their enterprise applications to achieve strategic goals like entering new markets, increasing revenue, and maintaining a competitive advantage. Worksoft, the pre-eminent fifth generation automation platform, delivers unmatched speed in automating the identification of current business processes and automatically creating tests to ensure that each business-critical process works as required. An independent study of Worksoft customers by industry analyst IDC identified many unique benefits of Worksoft’s automation platform, but chief among them was accelerating delivery of these applications by an average of nearly
48
two months. Consider how much more you could accomplish if you could cut weeks and months from every project. Leaders across the globe have adopted Worksoft as their weapon of choice to improve their financial and operational positions in their respective industries. Lead the Way First to market with autonomous cars? Moving your business model from DVDs to online subscription services?
Evolving from an online bookstore to the world’s largest internet retailer? These companies didn’t simply try to keep up. They were determined to lead. Today’s digital economy brings massive opportunity to companies looking to disrupt the market. There has been a fundamental change to the business landscape and companies who are competitive innovators will win. About the Company Worksoft provides the world's leading automation platform for enterprise applications. Companies worldwide rely on Worksoft's automated business process discovery, documentation, compliance, testing, risk analysis, and RPA to support critical packaged applications, including SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, Workday, SuccessFactors, ServiceNow and more. Our fifth-generation automation platform helps enterprises accelerate innovation and change, lower technology risk, and increase efficiency. Our ecosystem includes partnerships with Accenture, IBM, Cognizant, SAP and our Global 5000 customers include 3M, Intel, Microsoft, Siemens and more.
|September 2018|