Blaazin Software Consulting Inc.: IT

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This is a topic that I have dealt with on a first hand basis. My experiences with off-shoring and my general dislike of the practice stem from my intimate interaction with the process. I will not say that ALL off-shoring agencies will have ALL of these issues. What I will say is, not in a million years would I suggest a company take this avenue.

The drawbacks I am referring to were actually a series of smaller issues that piled on top of each other, and that lead to disaster.

Communication

At first, it was minor communication issues between us and the offshore development team. As good as requirements can be, there will always be questions or clarifications from Development to Business. To communicate with us, the process they had in place was for the development team to communicate through their Project Manager (who was in our time zone), and the PM would talk with us. This cycle took a full day in most cases (due to the time zone issue). A few questions lead to additional questions, and this resulting in some issues taking up to a week to be fully answered. To address this, the development team began working during our work time. As an unintended consequence, the Team Lead (who was female) didn't feel safe enough to leave the office at night, so she slept at the office during the week.

Attrition

At almost the halfway point to the project (about 5 months in), we began to notice significant issues with quality, and deliverables not being met. It took us a while to get to the bottom of it, but what had happened was a few senior developers had left the company (one of which was from our project). What the company did was move one senior developer off our project, and put them on another (to cover that project). That left our project without 2 senior developers. As part of the contract, we were to have those senior developers, so their company promoted two junior developers to senior to cover them contractually. They then hired two entry-level developers for our project, and called them junior developers.

Quality

We were left with one Team Lead, one senior developer, and 6 junior / entry-level developers. Not surprisingly, the quality of the application suffered greatly. Defects we could handle, but it was the lack of experience in coding that lead to significant PERFORMANCE problems. Our application was expected to handle a large amount of data in real-time, and due to the way the application was built, it would not perform anywhere near the pre-defined requirements. What followed was attempts to refactor areas of the application, and - although performance improved - that refactoring was not able to meet our performance requirements (or that of our End Users). As a last-ditch effort, some areas of the application were re-written, but it was too late.

To be fair, I believe the re-written pieces of the application would have met our performance criteria.

Outcome

With the communication issues, and lack of experienced developers, the project had significant quality and performance issues. The delivery date (for us and our client) was missed, and the make-up date was also missed. With the state the application was in, combined with an uncertainty of completion date, our client pulled the plug on the project.

What ended up happening was we lost the client, the client sued the company I worked for, the company I worked for sued the offshore development company, and the two people in our company who recommended off-shoring lost their jobs.

Conclusion

When looking for a Software Vendor, ask yourself if the benefit (which is ONLY cost) is really worth the risks and drawbacks, and potentially negative outcomes (which are many).

What I can say is that due to my experiences with Off-shoring software development, there is no power on earth that would make me go that route; the stakes are just too high to gamble.

Development , Information Technology , IT , Off-shore , Off-Shoring , Out-Source , Out-Sourcing , Programming , Small business , Software , 0 Comments

With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas just around the bend, is your company ready to take in some of the money flying around the Internet? Is your business setup to partake in the joy of online sales? You know that sunny spot in your business where your customers come to YOU in the hopes of buying that thing you offer to make the person in their lives overjoyed?

Listen, very rarely will people be so willing to separate from their cash as they will this time of year. Nothing is higher on peoples list than making those people they love happy. It's a need that drives people to scour the internet looking for YOU. Last year in just the U.S. there was an estimated 191.1 million online shoppers, by 2018 they are projecting that number to be 215.1 million (http://www.statista.com/statistics/183755/number-of-us-internet-shoppers-since-2009/). Can your company afford to miss the opportunity of this growth?

You may be thinking well wait... I don't have a product, I sell services. Bundle those services people. i.e. you teach Yoga: offer a 10 class pass or perhaps a specialty offering for those who are elderly or wanting advanced sessions. Any service can be packaged. Be unique. Look for niche markets; offer something people don't see often that would be enticing.

How can we allow Amazon to boast $67.86 Billion U.S. dollars in e-commerce revenues in 2013 and not do something to try and siphon some of that (http://www.statista.com/statistics/293089/leading-e-retailers-ranked-by-annual-web-e-commerce-sales/)? What they do right is ease of use, reviews on products, free shipping on some of their items over a certain dollar value, a return without questions policy and all from the comfort of my couch.

You can make this happen for your company. You just need to know what your offerings are and we can make it happen.

Automation , business , Development , entrepreneur , ideas , innovation , IT , marketing , online sales , online shopping , Small business , Software , 0 Comments

Last week, as I was on my way home, the dreaded 'Check Engine' light came on in my car. I managed to slowly limp home, and immediately my wife made an appointment to take my car to a big-name franchise to have the problem found (she's so much better at that stuff than I am - I would have made the problem worse by trying to 'fix' something myself).

The appointment was set for Saturday morning, 8:00am.

I prepared myself for what I was to expect. I was going to get the news that the transmission was almost dead, and would need either a new one, or a rebuild. No matter what, I expected to grab my ankles. Saturday rolls around, I get my car to the garage, stroll up to the desk, and announce my name to Jerry (I know it was Jerry because that was the name on his overalls). It was then that I got my first surprise of the day. It wasn't a huge thing, but having been immersed in software for the past 15 years, I was shocked to see that the appointment book was exactly that: an appointment book! Complete with names and times (written in pen). Appointment changes were done by drawing a line from the original time-slot to the new one. Cancellations: you guessed it; the names were crossed out. I didn't see any, but I'd be willing to bet that there was White-Out in there somewhere.

That got me thinking about how many businesses are still using manual processes? I'm sure they work well provided things stay the same, but what happens as the business expands? What happens if Jerry spills his coffee on the appointment book?

Ultimately, it boils down to one piece of imagery: How many people still beat their laundry on a rock in the river?

The rock worked fine: the clothes were clean. I know what you're thinking. Having washing and drying machines in our homes is a lot more convenient. I can't imagine how many hours are saved by being able to wash laundry at the same time as any other task in our overly-busy lives. Not to mention the quality of the washing itself; beating clothes against a rock definitely reduces its wearable life.

Business processes are no different. Manual processes do work for a short time, but cannot compare to the speed, quality, and reliability of having those same processes automated via software.

Companies seem to view software as a tool for a company to interact with their clients or customers. They focus on their online stores, advertising and selling their products. Business is more than just sales, it's how the processes function as a unit. It is true that more sales mean great things to companies, but saving costs is just as good. There is no greater cost savings than saving time, and that is what automating processes in software does. All systems can be seamlessly integrated.

How do you plan to better your business?

Don't let your business processes fold in on itself because of Jerry's haphazard coffee. In this scenario we would create one system that could schedule appointments and bill clients, as well as contact them in the future for marketing and advertising. All this done seamlessly (and in the blink of an eye).

Automation , Development , entrepreneur , innovation , IT , Quality , Small business , Software , 0 Comments

Fleur Ottaway, Founder of Venture Digital, is our next amazing woman in business. She has tackled the IT domain. Tackled is the absolute best description, it's one of the most competitive markets out there (we should know :) ) What we love about what she's created is that she's not been swayed away from this great 'Venture' because it's a male dominated industry. On the contrary, she's met it head on.

Venture Digital provides ethical visibility and reputation marketing services to local businesses in and around Barrie, Ontario. They utilize public relations practices combined with today's technologies to bring visibility to local businesses and build their reputation to make them the business of choice for their target clients. Venture Digital also provides reputation monitoring and public relations mitigation services. They have a branch of business for affordable web design, as well a branch of business technology consulting & implementation coming soon!

Here's how the story unfolded:

What made you pick your path as it is today? What about your chosen field drew you to it?

After dealing with some disabling health issues I found myself struggling in my general day-to-day
corporate job. I felt unfulfilled and unchallenged. Suddenly an opportunity came up where I was not
working for a company anymore and I was exploring having to work in Toronto to stay in an IT sector position. Between the commuting and the same stresses in the corporate IT world I realized that this isn’t the path for me, I need more freedom to push myself past my skills and more freedom of schedule to break away from the 9 to 5. This is when I decided to start my own business. In my spare time for the past 10 to 15 years I was volunteering for many organizations, helping them with their internet marketing, publicity, event planning, and business technologies. I found I always enjoyed digital marketing and publicity more than my daily IT job. I enjoy interacting with people and audiences more than working behind the scenes in IT. So I decided to start my business for marketing and PR in a digital world.

How did you decide or what made you decide that this passion for your chosen career could go from what you love to something others would value to?

It really was part of the realization that I was taking this on in my part-time volunteer roles and loving it so much more than the IT position I was doing full time. The organizations were in great need of these services and didn’t know enough about it to do it all themselves. As well it gave results; the organizations succeeded more when implementing these services as part of their overall activities.

Was there a time commitment to becoming an ‘expert’ in this field and what did you find challenging about this leg of the journey?

I did take a certificate program for digital marketing and certified in the Online Marketing Certified Practitioners (OMCP). For any of the technical aspects of my business, I attended Georgian College for 3 years. I took a diploma program in Computer Systems Technician and a post graduate studies in Cyberspace security. These courses set the groundwork but the hands on positions I did in my co-ops and after school is where I learned the most. I learn best by doing and that is probably why I have all this knowledge in internet marketing and public relations even though I never went to school for it. I also find marketing requires a lot of understanding of people, their personalities, habits, and beliefs. Having grown up in a household where my mother was running her own business in counseling and alternative healthcare I picked up many of these skills. They became ingrained into me.

Given where you are now, what do you find most challenging about getting your business going? How are you dealing with those concerns?

The thing I find most challenging is that I provide high quality work but in today’s economy people want to cut costs. I have been able to work with some of my services like my web design services to find a simple solution at an affordable rate however it is tougher when working with the subjective world of marketing. The things I am doing to work around this is, trying to find the best processes to deliver services to clients that are looking to cut costs as well as branching out into groups like BNI and soon heading south of Barrie for networking groups in Newmarket and Vaughan. To reach larger markets you have to be willing to spend extra time and money and that’s what I have come to realize and started to do.

Given your location how are you going to reach your customers? How do you plan your strategy for business direction or how would you once things get going?

In the Simcoe County region networking is key to building a business, as you move further South it
becomes more about visibility advertising and knowing the right people. As mentioned above I have
been branching into larger networking opportunities like BNI and groups south of Barrie. As I head
further south into the GTA I need to start looking at more paid advertising and making contacts in the
right places, which I usually am pretty good at.

My business direction is to grow, hire employees, and incorporate. All of this is in an effort to start
bidding on government and corporate contracts and eventually move into Asian markets. I want this
business to grow into a worldwide enterprise and support future employees and become a key player inthis industry.

Looking forward in time what is the one thing you hope your business brings to your customers?

I want my customers to feel appreciated and empowered with knowledge. I believe in great customer service and being transparent with my customers. Many of my clients appreciate that I keep them informed as well as teach them to understand the marketing and technical aspects of their business. They feel more at ease and confident and that’s what I want for my clients.

Fleur and her company Venture Digital can be found on:

Website: http://www.venturedigital.ca/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VentureDigital

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VentureDCS

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+VenturedigitalCaplus/posts