The Axis Technical Group Blog

Companies large and small are continuing to seek out new ways to maximize their technology investments to drive new business and lower costs. Over the last 18 months companies have executed numerous plans to reduce cost and maximize efficiency, and in many cases this led to an increased focus on technology. However, technology itself is not cheap either.

With an increase in the development (and use) of software to help save costs and increase productivity, the development cycle has been heating up at organizations coast to coast. But the multitude of platforms and environments organizations need to support are leading to new cost concerns. The fact is, testing software applications or products that support multiple active versions and/or multiple operating systems can be very expensive and time consuming activity.

Many of the clients and IT Executives that Axis Technical Group works with have focused on ways to deal with this challenge. One such solution is to use virtual environments for software maintenance and testing. By using this solution, The Axis India team is helping several clients realize substantial benefits from reduction in overall costs, to improved turnaround time and increased reliability of the test environment.

Axis Technical Group has just published a new white paper on the subject, and it is available for download by clicking here. We would also like to hear from you about the money-saving efforts your organizations are using as we all continue to navigate this new global economy.

Download: Virtual Environments for Software Maintenance & Testing

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So many brains have spent so many brain cycles on this very single puzzle- the right project metric. In simpler terms a measurement method that determines if the project is on track through the life of the project.  Each individual in the group of the ‘stake holders’ and a few outside it has keen interest in the value that this metric delivers. But what is the right metric? We can probably get a couple of hundred finalists and this can easily overwhelm an already burdened project manager. Leaving the right exact single solution to people from the world of academia we still need to find the right substitute as we await the golden answer.

Experience speaks that that there is one single metric which many high performing managers on the ground swear by and that is (thanks to Ron Jeffries) “Running Tested Features” or RTF. This is a simple common sense approach that tries to capture where the project is in terms of its ‘shipability’. Though using this metric in the polarized worlds of waterfalls, Agiles and others, can be a bit tricky, understanding the concept behind the metric often does the trick.

The focus on delivering “real software” is the gist. Right from the word go the team would need to focus on delivering the real features that the end users can actually use. As long as this number is steady in its growth it can be safely assumed that all is well with the project. Any “dead zone” would indicate trouble and would need immediate attention. The team will have to be consistent in the delivery throughout the project and not just at the end as with most of the projects.

What do you think about RTF?
Does it work? Is it possible to game it?

Please post your comments. We are eager to hear back from you.

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We have heard of dark clouds, white clouds, and clouds with a silver lining but now the clouds are D-for-digital (d-clouds) or I- for-internet (I-cloud), not to mention the 24 more possibilities for rest of the alphabet. Well, if you need to pick an alphabet you need to pick it fast as most of them are “going going” and will soon be “gone”. In the “gone” state is the G-Cloud – the “Government Cloud” (It could have been green, growing, gaming or g-whatever) . Yes. Just as is obvious, it does mean a cloud that is of the public sector for the public sector and for the public sector.

In theory this would be huge achievement. Firstly, it would mean hefty cost savings in the IT infrastructure and most significantly energy. Secondly, the availability of the resources will be easier than ever and from the public sector point of view, standardization of all the underlying requirements will make it a dream project. If you think this concept is out of a “vision 2020” book you are wrong. The UK government had announced commencement of work on the G-cloud and that it will be available soon. If this turns out to be a success, this one event is sure going to be a game changer.
Everyone including the software product vendors, hardware vendors, support personnel, software services companies will have to pause and re strategize to meet the enormous transformation that this one single event will cause. But isn’t this taking things too far too soon? Where will all the critical, highly sensitive data lie? “There somewhere on the cloud?” Everyone knows that even the most publicized private clouds place their most sensitive data at the most secured locations.

So will the G-Cloud stand true to the expectations? Will you be comfortable with the Government offices working on the “server in the air”?  Will a single failure be a failure “en masse”?  Will a single security breach compromise the security of a whole nation? Are people behind this really sure of what they are doing or is this one of those policies that can never be realistic. The questions are more and answers are few. An issue for a  rigorous debate that we simply cannot ignore.

What do you think? Which side would you take? We would love to hear from you.

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For many in the United States (and many other countries as well), this is the best time of year – The start of the Major League Baseball Season. The game of baseball has entrenched itself in American culture and is often used as a metaphor in lessons of both business and life. But in other parts of the world, a similar, yet very different game gets the crowds whipped into a frenzy.

Super Ball

Pace of life in India is picking up and it is 40 times of what it was 10 years ago.  Curious? Let me explain. As cricket is “The Sport” of India, the pace of things can very well be benchmarked against it.   The game of Cricket used to be a 5 day affair and many of the matches would end in a draw with no winner or loser.

But gone are those days.  The latest fascination of the “junta” (read people) is the 20-20 cricket and the game is played in just 3 hours.  So the earlier 5 days x 24 hours divided by 3 hours gives the figure of 40.  Easy isn’t it?

And now the 20-20 cricket is here to stay with the Indian Premier League growing stronger with each passing day. India now has its very own variant of the National Football League and thus the Super Bowl.    Along with everything else (read cheerleaders, fireworks, movie stars and all the glitter), the money involved is incredible as well. It looks like the IPL is already ahead of the long established English premier league in terms of the team worth.

The rights for the Pune IPL cricket team were sold recently at a whopping $ 370 million! That is a lot of money for a country of per capita yearly earnings of $2200. This speaks volumes about the changing face of the game and of the people following it. There are speculations that the change will help in gaining popularity in areas where cricket is barely known and the most coveted will be the US. Well Cricket is a distant cousin of Baseball and people should not mind watching it.

The interesting point here is the convergence of cultures. With every passing day, it is becoming easier for the people in India to relate to the people around the world and the IPL is just another example. That in turn means better understanding, better communication and of course better effectiveness in working together.

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Today Axis continues its look at the home of our India Operations….

That’s India for you! A Land of Many Cultures

In a country as diverse and complex as India, it is not surprising to find that people here reflect the rich glories of the past, the culture, traditions and values relative to geographic locations and the numerous distinctive manners, habits and food that will always remain truly Indian. According to five thousand years of recorded history.

From the eternal snows of the Himalayas to the cultivated peninsula of far South, from the deserts of the West to the humid deltas of the East, from the dry heat and cold of the Central Plateau to the cool forest foothills, Indian lifestyles clearly glorify the geography. The food, clothing and habits of an Indian differ in accordance to the place of origin.

Indians believe in sharing happiness and sorrow. A festival or a celebration is never constrained to a family or a home. The whole community or neighborhood is involved in bringing liveliness to an occasion. A lot of festivals like Diwali, Holi, Id, Christmas, Mahaveer Jayanthi are all celebrated by sharing sweets and pleasantries with family, neighbors and friends. An Indian wedding is an occasion that calls for participation of the family and friends.

Ethnically Indians speak different languages, follow different religions, eat the most diverse varieties of food all of which add to the rich Indian culture. The beauty of the Indian people lies in the spirit of tolerance, give-and-take and a composition of cultures that can be compared to a garden of flowers of various colors and shades of which, while maintaining their own entity, lend harmony and beauty to the garden – India!

The land speaks in a myriad languages:

India is a land of a variety of linguistic communities, each of which share a common language and culture. Though there could be fifteen principal languages, there are hundreds of thousands dialects that add to the vividness of the country.

Eighteen (18) languages are officially recognized in India of which Sanskrit and Tamil share a long history of more than 5,000 and 3,000 years respectively. The population of people speaking each language varies drastically. For example Hindi has 250 million speakers, while Andamanese is spoken by relatively fewer people.

Tribal or Aboriginal language speaking population in India may be more than some of the European languages. For instance Bhili and Santali both tribal languages have more than 4 million speakers. The vividness can be ascertained by the fact that schools in India teach more than 50 different languages; there are Films in 15 languages, Newspapers in 90 or more languages and radio programs in 71 languages!

Indian languages come from four distinct families, which are: Indo-European, Dravidian, Mon-Khmer, and Sino-Tibetan. Majority of Indian population uses Indo-European and Dravidian languages. The language families divide India geographically too.

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Many people attribute rising costs in any industry, and especially healthcare, to technology. But in reality, technology in healthcare seems to be driving healthcare costs UP. Is that really the case?

In nearly every sector of the economy, technology drives costs down – just as your digital camera gets cheaper and better every year, so technology drives down the cost of manufacturing, the cost of retailing, the cost of research. But for some reason, in healthcare, technology has the opposite effect; it doesn’t cut costs, it raises them. In fact, medical technologies – from CT scans to stents to biologics – are a significant factor in the 10% annual growth rate of healthcare spending, a rate that’s nearly triple the pace of inflation. (Overall, the US is now estimated to spend a stunning $2.7 trillion on healthcare in 2010.)

When you look closer however, some healthcare companies (including insurance companies) are using technology to improve care and service, while driving costs down.

In the world of insurance and care providers, some folks already understand this, and are way ahead of Washington policy makers in tapping cheap technologies to improve healthcare. In Hawaii, Kaiser Permanente has started a pilot project that churn through its database of patient data to predict which patients might need which tests – and then sends individuals email alerts suggesting they come in for a test or checkup. It’s the same sort of technology that Netflix uses to recommend movies. And the Cleveland Clinic has teamed up with Microsoft to bring self-monitoring tools to patients managing chronic diseases, successfully engaging them in better health behaviors without expensive visits to the hospital.

Axis Technical Group is working closely with its clients in the healthcare sectors designing, developing and implementing solutions that ultimately will push costs down, while more importantly, providing better, quicker and more interaction with primary and secondary care givers. From patient and doctor portals, to systems that predict the kinds of tests and precautionary measures individuals need, healthcare technology is leading the way to true reform in the industry.

Click here to read the entire article about technology and costs in healthcare.

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The following is an excerpt from Axis Technical Group’s free report titled, “Outsourcing – Critical Factors for Success”. The entire report can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

The realities of today’s economy demand that companies large and small “do more with less”. This rallying cry is familiar to everyone in the business world, and in many cases, the recent stability in the marketplace is in large part because organizations have successfully found ways to make every dollar they spend truly count. However, technology executives are continuously faced with new challenges to ensure that their company’s critical systems can keep up with the objectives of the business.

Dramatic shifts in revenue streams over the last couple of years have forced management to cut costs by becoming more efficient and productive. Huge demands have been placed on Information Technology departments and vendors to provide solutions that streamline process and demonstrate extreme cost effectiveness. Whatever the solution is for a particular or industry, the demand to reduce cost through automation is extremely high on the to-do list of most organizational leaders in every industry. Given the financial impact on a business by failing at this, the urgency to accomplish key technology objectives as quickly as possible places additional pressure on what is usually already an understaffed IT department.

These challenges combined with shrinking IT budgets, are leaving technology leaders with very few options. Generally, their choices boil down to just two: use fewer resources, or do more with the current resources they have. One way many IT leaders have found they can get more done within their current budget constraints is to outsource a portion of their work to a near shore or offshore IT partner. Outsourcing vendors provide a wide range of services from custom software development and maintenance of existing enterprise applications to Business Analysis, software Quality Assurance, and Documentation, all the while being sensitive to organizational budgets.

Click here to download the entire free report or email us and we will reply with a copy.

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There is a new home for the Axis Technical Group Blog in cyberspace: www.axistechnical.com/blog.

Hosting our own blog will allow for greater flexibility and access to our team of global professionals. We will be experimenting with different themes & skins for the blog in the coming weeks, so we welcome your comments and suggestions.

Be sure to mark the Axis Blog a favorite in your feed, and check back often. We are planning new streams of content in topics ranging from technology trends and breakthroughs, to our take on the market (in parts and whole), and will continue to provide tips to professionals seeking work in the IT industry.

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Axis Technical Group recently announced that Microsoft has renewed Axis’ Gold Level Partner Certification for 2010. The certifications are for key competencies in Custom Software Development, Data Management, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process, as well as for Advanced Infrastructure Solutions.

Axis Expertise. Certified.

The Gold Level Partner status ensures the close working relationship between Axis and Microsoft, and stands as a testament to the outstanding work and expertise of the Axis in Motion strategic consulting team. The certifications represent the expertise and high level of competence in Axis’ service offerings, and, it doesn’t hurt our sales efforts in talking with clients either.

Read more about Axis’ certifications here.

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We came across this article on the MSNBC blog, The Red Tape Chronicles, and wanted to pass it along.

With all the press about the latest social networking site or neat little internet trick, security is as big an issue as ever. The 12 issues written about here are things we each run across every day. In particular, Issue 8 about Cell Phones, and Issue 11 about URL Shorteners are excellent reminders of new threats.

Axis wants to hear from you! What other threats should computer users be aware of in 2010 and beyond? Post your comments below or email us.

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