Whether you’re a one-person company selling unique products online or a 5,000+ employee SaaS company, every business is different. What all businesses have in common is the need to run as efficiently and productively as possible so that they can grow and meet business goals. One of the most important aspects to consider when it comes to efficiency is how software is helping your businesses to reach those goals.
While it’s important to implement solutions to manage your sales, marketing, finances, support, and so on, it’s also important to consider how those apps will work with one another to make business processes more efficient. You might have a great CRM and awesome marketing tools, but if they aren’t easily integrated, you’ll end up wasting valuable time just transferring information from one app to the other. Or maybe you have a robust finance suite, but you’re stuck exporting and re-importing invoices from your accounting software to your CRM.
Instead of wasting your time on these low-value activities, make your life easier and choose business software that’s built to work together. By using integrated applications, you can save time and automate processes for a more efficient work environment.
One platform to help you run your entire business online, with contextual integrations to empower your business is ZoHo. Whatever business process you have to handle — accounting, sales management, expenses, social media and project management, and beyond — Zoho One comes can help you manage it. Everything from sales and marketing, to support and collaboration, to finances and beyond is in one integrated platform, streamlining your business and increasing your effectiveness.
The deep contextual integrations throughout the platform help you eliminate busy work and automate your processes so you aren’t wasting time switching between apps, copying and pasting data to get the insight you need.
How would you use extra time saved?
Would you focus on big-picture projects? Could you accomplish business goals faster? With enhanced productivity how many other projects could you launch? The possibilities are endless.
How would centralized information transform your business?
Centralized and integrated client information, across all your business software, means you can sell and support your users better and faster and you can view data across your whole organization, showing you where processes are working well, and where you can improve things.
The truth is, we know it’s not easy running a small business where you have to work on so many different things at once. ZoHo is a 20-year-old startup and they know what it’s like. That’s why they strive to help educate solopreneurs, startups, small, and medium business owners so that they can empower their organization with apps that make their lives easier, and eliminate unnecessary cost, rather than the other way around.
Zoho’s holding a free educational seminar going over business basics and best practices and how Zoho can help on March 7th in Phoenix and would love to have you join! They’ll discuss how you can increase productivity and show you how to efficiently run your entire business with one platform for everything. As a bonus, they’re providing free breakfast, lunch, and plenty of coffee to get you through a full day of learning.
Blockchain technology has gotten tremendous attention lately for its industry-disrupting capabilities. As a result, many enterprises are rushing to try and incorporate blockchain into their ecosystem, so they are not left behind. There are also companies who are simply adding this buzz word to their existing offering and claiming that they are now blockchain ready/enabled etc.
Unfortunately, as with any emerging technology that is gaining momentum, there is a lot of confusion and misdirection. As a result, enterprises are spending a lot of time and money in a technology that might not be applicable to them or is the wrong use case.
In this article, I will try to provide a high-level overview of the technology, its strengths/weakness and outline some potential use cases.
So what is Distributed Ledger Technology(DLT)?
But wait, we thought you were going to talk to us about Blockchain! Before we venture into Blockchain we need to discuss the difference between Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT). Blockchain caught on as a buzzword and is more recognized among the masses and commonly used interchangeably with DLT (although they don’t mean the same thing at all).
Distributed Ledger is a data structure which is stored across distributed/de-centralized devices, usually spread across various locations. DLT is a technology that uses a distributed ledger to store data, a specific protocol to achieve consensus and transactional code to change the state of the ledger. The storage structure, distribution methodology and consensus protocol used (Proof of Work, Proof of Stake, Directed Acyclic Graph, etc.) differentiate various DLTs.
All blockchains are DLTs… but not all animals are dogs
In summary, Blockchain is a sub-type of DLT. All blockchains are DLTs but not all DLTs are Blockchains. Think all dogs are animals, but not all animals are dogs, the same with Blockchains and DLTs.
Why all the hype?
So now that we have covered the fundamentals of DLT and Blockchain, let’s see what the hype is all about. Historically, enterprises stored all their data in centralized databases, think Oracle, SQL Server, Mainframes etc. These solutions have evolved over the years to provide reliable, fast and successful data management solutions. Millions of installations and trillion of queries later, these systems have carved out a place at the heart of data management for most organizations. However, since the data is centralized, the custodian of the data has the keys to the kingdom and users have to rely on the organization for the integrity of the data(trust). Additionally, since the single instance of the database contains all pertinent data, it is vulnerable to hacking, thus making it less secure(security).
DLTs, on the other hand, are distributed and immutable (unchanging over time) by nature, and the data is secured using cryptography making it virtually impossible to hack. The distributed and immutable nature of the data removes the need for a centralized authority to govern the data.Since the community is now the custodian of the data, this brings trust to an ordinarily trustless environment. Since the data is replicated over a network and distributed, DLTs have extreme fault tolerance built into them. Given these innate benefits, you can see why everyone is excited and rushing to implement DLTs in their organization.
So what’s the problem?
If DLTs are so awesome, why shouldn’t my organization jump on the first chance to implement DLT/Blockchain? Before we decide, let’s recap the benefits of DLTs:
· Trust · Robust fault tolerance · Secure collaboration of data
Do DLTs have any disadvantages? Yes, and the answer is performance. Due to the nature of the technology DLTs will ALWAYS be slower than centralized databases.
So if trust and fault tolerance are not an issue in your organization and performance is crucial to your operation, DLT/Blockchain might not be for you.
This article obviously has oversimplified the analysis needed before your organization can make a firm decision on the need for DLTs. A business must, of course, consider cost, schedule, willingness to collaborate across a business network, public vs permissions, ways to incentivize the community, etc. before making the final decision.
Enterprise DLT Use Cases
· Industrial IoT — Expose IoT sensor data to auditing agencies via DLT · Supply-chain Provenance — Track products as it journeys through the supply chain on DLT · Sensitive Data Document Management — Use DLT to author and distribute documents securely · Asset Configuration Management — Track asset configuration over time on DLT to avoid errors · Medical Records Management — Track patient records on DLT to facilitate data collaboration · Controlled Drugs Tracking — Using a DLT to track ingredients, suppliers, distributors and patients
How can hyperFIELD help?
We know the implementation of emerging technologies, or even just finding out if they are right for your business, is a daunting task. hyperFIELD is made up of a team of industry and technology experts with years of experience doing just that. We specialize in emerging technologies like DLT (aka Blockchain), Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Analytics. Feel free to reach out to us with any questions. We would be happy to sit down with your team and help you to identify what technologies would best suit your business needs.
About the Author: Naveen Sydney is a life-long entrepreneur and a pioneer of emerging technologies. He has over 20 years of experience in a variety of industries with a focus on enterprise management and technical innovation.
As CTO at hyperFIELD, he operates with a customer-first motto to connect businesses with the right solutions to increase productivity and profits. During the course of his career, he has consulted for Fortune 100 companies including GM, Microsoft and Raytheon, and continues to be sought after for advice in emerging technologies like Blockchain, Machine Learning, Predictive Analytics, Augmented Reality, etc.
Developing technology is one of the most challenging endeavors a person can embark on, and unless you’ve actually coded software, it’s difficult to understand the complexities involved- even for some developers!
To get a better idea of how non-developers can better screen developers for projects, our team at PHX SUW asked Vincent Serpico, founder of SerpicoDEV, to share some tips for finding the right development team for your project.
Success and failure in development projects have patterns that can help foresee these outcomes, for better or for worse. There are several key measures, if implemented, that can ensure the success of a project. These are best determined by asking the following 10 questions of the development company before starting a project.
1. What experience do you have in my domain?
The more your development team understands your business, the better they can create and implement your project. But, your development team is unlikely to have expertise in every aspect of the business. After all, there are a lot of verticals out there.
It is appropriate to expect your development team to take the time to research and understand your ideal client, your market, and your business model. They should ask you questions; they should read articles and listen to podcasts on your industry and topic; they should spend some time on-site with you. In many ways, they should become stand-in “experts” in your field, specifically for your niche in your industry. This will closely inform the user experience, and ensure the desired business outcome can be met with the intended software use.
2. How do you plan projects?
You know what they say, “months of coding will save you days of planning…” While some companies will answer this question by saying “we are lean and agile” and try to move on. But that’s often just an excuse not to take the time to plan in detail up-front what a project will entail — and thereby also reduce any corrective measures that may occur later.
Project planning means taking the time to think through the project in a detailed way that will serve the project management process. It means walking through the flow and usability of a project before developers begin to code. It means creating a solid plan and a roadmap to the final outcome, knowing that a plan can be modified in the process. The plan can then become the guideline to keep a project on target for delivery — and manage costs. Those days planning? In the end, they save months of coding and wasted time and money.
3. What documentation will I get from you?
Development documentation comes in several forms. There are flow diagrams, wireframes, mockups, and project plans (assuming, of course, your development team took the time to plan your project). There are user guides, test scripts, and deployment guides, to name a few more.
First, if your development team is not creating all of these documents, you need to find out why. The creation of these documents ensures that a project follows a measurable process. Second, if you decide to switch development teams or take your development in-house, these documents will serve well to ensure a smooth transition. Always be sure there is documentation of the project.
Also important is documentation within the code itself. Too many times development teams don’t provide proper comments within the code. A great way to see if they’re going to provide good comments/documentation is to ask yourself, are they good communicators? Ask to see some of their code and have a third party audit it if you don’t feel comfortable auditing it yourself. But who audits the auditors? That’s a separate blog post.
4. What is the team structure?
There are a lot of different team structures. Certainly, there is no one “right” team structure. It really depends on the project. The purpose of this question is to ensure that your development team has: a) thoroughly thought through the optimal team for you — not underpowered and overstaffed; and b) to ensure there is leadership and accountability inherent in the team’s structure. A solid team may include a project manager, a development team lead or architect, two developers, a designer, and a tester.
5. What transparency do I have in the team’s daily activities?
This is a big one. Never ever work with a development company that does not provide 100 percent transparency into your development team’s activities. It’s your money, it’s your team, it’s your project. You should have full access to each team member’s daily activities, and preferably on a granular level. You should have the ability to speak with any team member anytime you need to. “Black box” development teams typically squander your time and money, and this can be avoided with 100 percent transparency.
Obviously, you’re not there to micromanage, no one likes that, but you are trying to integrate their team with yours to ensure proper development of the product.
6. Why did you choose this technology stack?
We are fortunate to live in a time when there are many great technologies available from which to choose. The list of technology stacks that you can utilize to implement your project could easily fit an entire page. And while a lot of different technologies can get the job done, there’s a good way to narrow down your choice of technology stack.
First, you need to research how many other developers know the technology stack. For example, Julia is a great programming language for numerical analysis. So is Python. However, there are far more Python developers than Julia developers. So, if you need to switch teams or bring on more developers, you’ll have a wider pool of talent with Python developers than Julia developers.
Second, steer clear of brand-new development stacks. Besides the problem of lack of resources, new development stacks are not proven… and your project should not serve as the proving ground!
Other considerations to keep in mind when considering technology stacks: •What is the average cost for developers in the stack you are using? •What is the cost to deploy the stack on servers? •What documentation is available on the stack? •Do they have use cases of other projects using the stack?
7. What is your testing strategy?
Testers generally get treated as second-class citizens in the development culture. The truth is testing is a vital and crucial element to the development process. Good testing involves creating a wide array of test scripts that will QA your project from every angle, including edge cases. This is a lot more complex than it sounds.
When founders take on testing themselves, they often miss wide swatches of bugs that made it into production. A trained QA tester knows where to find these buried bugs. Be sure your development team has a very solid testing strategy in place and that the testing strategy is a key part of the development process. Avoid teams that do not treat testers as first-class members of their team.
8. What is your coding and delivery strategy?
There are too many buzzwords when it comes to coding. Agile, waterfall, spiral, lean, and so many more. The buzzword is not important. In fact, ignore it. Instead, ask probing questions about “how” your development team codes. In what ways does the team communicate with each other? How often does the team communicate with each other? Who is the team leader? How are tasks planned and assigned? How often are deliveries targeted? How does the team handle bugs and problems? What is the team’s policy in testing (before a trained QA tester tests)? How does the team handle differences of opinion? What do the team members do if they become late on delivery? If your development company simply replies, “Don’t worry. We’re agile.” you can reply, “You’re fired!” You deserve to know how your development team works.
9. How often can we meet for status updates?
Unfortunately, too many clients come out of development relationships that take advantage of their time and resources. I have seen development shops go days and sometimes weeks without answering phone calls or emails — leaving a client worried, stressed, anxious, and frustrated. Your development team should be providing you with regular status updates.
And your development team should be meeting with you regularly. How often is “meeting regularly?” That question can be answered with where you are in your project lifecycle and what level of detail you need. It can be as frequently as every day, or bi-weekly, or once every two weeks. “Regularly” means meeting at intervals that make you, as the client and owner of the project, comfortable.
“Regularly” means meeting at intervals that ensure you feel you have all the details you need. As the project and business owner, you have the power to determine how often you meet.
10. How will you support my project once it’s delivered?
Any experienced entrepreneur will tell you that deploying your project is just the beginning. In other words, that’s when the really hard work starts: Business Execution! And while you are running around wearing the multiple hats of lead generation, marketing, PR, sales, accounting, legal, management, employee HR, payroll, and everything else, you will also need to deal with maintenance and updates to your software.
How will your development team handle urgent updates? When you need a new feature added quickly to drive revenue, or a small bug fixed that’s annoying a high-profile client, how will your development team address the request? Will you be treated with a sense of urgency, or will your request fall to the bottom of the queue? Of course, you should be treated with a sense of urgency, regardless of the type of request. Ensure there is a mechanism in place for your development team to address all of your post-deployment requests in a timely manner.
But that’s just a start…
While these ten questions are a good start you will probably have some of your own questions: What about pricing and invoicing policies? Access and ownership of your code? A good development shop will answer your questions and empower you to achieve your software goal. Any development team that does less doesn’t deserve your trust…or your business.
It’s your development team’s responsibility to provide you with world-class service and treat you like a valued partner. It’s your responsibility to do your due diligence before starting a development relationship. Be sure to ask these ten questions to every development team you interview. If you are currently in a development relationship that isn’t working, ask these probing questions to better determine if the partnership is the right kind of match. It’s your money, your code, and your project. The success of your project is highly correlated to processes, methodology, and culture built into the development team you hire.
Ready to learn more about best practices in software development?
SerpicoDEV builds software for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses. They have been in business for 10 years, have a team of 25 people, and have supported more than 100 businesses to expand and prosper. Contact SerpicoDEV to learn more about our development process.
Vincent Serpico is also a long-time member of the PHX tech community and an active investor in tech companies bringing innovation to the industry. He’s founded a few tech companies and raised money himself. Most recently Vincent founded SerpicoDEV with a single mission: Enthusiastically and expertly build great software for entrepreneurs, start-ups and software companies.
PHX SUW 2019 is all about working together so PHX will #ThriveTogether- volunteering is a great way to get involved and make all your dreams come true.
Picture this, you are volunteering at PHX SUW 2019, rocking the check-in table. You only signed up to volunteer because a month ago (that’s today) your friend (that’s me) told you it was a good idea. When the alarm went off this morning there was some regret at that decision, but you are a person of your word so you arrived early, ready to take on the day.
You’re reppin’ PHX with a smile on your face and coffee in your veins, welcoming awesome PHX people to SUW 2019, when you look up and see a face you recognize. Next in line to check-in is the CEO of a large, local company who you have been trying your best to connect with, but have had no luck… yet. Introducing yourself with a firm handshake you welcome them to PHX SUW 2019, tell them you’re happy they’re here and that you’d love to connect sometime.
They smile, because everyone likes to be known, and tell you they’ll keep an eye out for you at lunch. That fateful lunch becomes the lunch legends are made of, and the rest is history… all because you decided to give back and be #generous with your time. It’s like a business romcom up in this place and your life is forever changed. #youarewelcome
2018 Volunteers- Look at how much fun they’re having!
Why else should you volunteer? Here are just a few reasons:
Meet and network with other entrepreneurs
Get to know other volunteers and the SUW leadership team
Free Lunch and a sick T-shirt (there is such a thing as a free lunch!)
Make sure everyone has a good time (it’s an easy gig!)
Be the face of PHX SUW and our startup scene
Give back to the community by supporting this event
PHX SUW only happens because of volunteers! Join us! Own it! #TeamWork
PHX SUW 2019 is all about working together so PHX will #ThriveTogether- volunteering is a great way to get involved and make all your dreams come true. This is your friend Forbes telling you that you won’t regret it. See you soon!
