Applying Information Technology successfully
Applying technology successfully must start with asking the right questions. This is even more true for Information Technology because of the high costs often associated with it. Asking the right questions at the right time avoids costly rework and stops efforts that go off track timely.
The answer of many of these questions must be sought in clearly defined business goals. Without clearly defined, communicated and shared goals, it is impossible to answer questions like: "what investment can be justified", "when must the project be finished", "what is the competition doing and do we need to act on it", "what is the impact of problems encountered during development", "when to stop and when to push forward". Likely suppliers play a role in this, how do you get them on board and don't get pull on to the wrong track by them?
Where business and technology meet, is the area where our team adds value to your business. As techies we have the Know How and understanding of technology, as ingenieurs we know how to apply technology effectively to your business. Please read on to catch a glimpse of our expertise.
- Application Development
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When you have determined that an applications adds value to your business,
you have many difficult choices ahead, each of them capable of determining success or failure:
- Contract service, buy products or build software in house?
- For any of the above: how much is enough?
- How frequently will requirements change?
- What about availability?
- On what type of devices must functionality be made available?
- How secure must the application be?
- Can "The Cloud" help you?
- Can "Cloud Technology" be applied independantly from a Cloud outsourcing model?
- Enterprise Architecture
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Applications rarely function all by themselves.
Business processes usually span several applications and systems.
Integration tools promise paradise, but they come at a cost that in hindsight is often not high for what they deliver.
You need 'the whole picture' to ensure that current and new development work together in harmony with the business.
- How does it all fit together?
- Is your investment in IT as agile as you business?
- Are business processes and systems sufficiently lined up so that process improvements don't impact all of your systems?
- Can data be shared easily between different applications?
- Have your architecture principles become a straitjacket?
- Software Development
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Software can be molded in many shapes, that is both its beauty and its biggest problem.
Poorly made software can function satisfactory at first, but may proof prohibitively expensive in the long run.
However, not all applications have long life spans, nor are they business critical or need frequent changes,
so what quality is good enough and how do you control that?
- What development methodology suits your business?
- Agile and Scrum are fashionable lately, but are they the answer to your challenge?
- What technology suits your application?
- Is an Open Source solution expensive or a bargain for you?
- Would "continuous deployment" be possible and beneficial for your business?
- How come that development is overdue, over budget or under performing or all of those?
- Infra Structure
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There was a time long ago that infra structure was synonymous with hardware and cables.
Virtualization has changed all this - software defines virtual networks and hosts on standard hardware.
- SAAS, IAAS, Cloud or what not, does it have benefits for your business?
- Is the "Cloud" suitable for your business?
- Are you struggling with too much down time or frequent maintenance windows?
- Is disaster recovery in control?