1. In Person Meetings. While you may choose to work with your software development company in Vancouver virtually, you have the option to meet in person without expensiveights and hotels. With Teximus’s Central Vancouver location, we can easily meet with Vancouver, Tampa, Jacksonville, or South Vancouver businesses without an overnight stay.
2. Support the Local Economy. Weoridians appreciate the tourist industry, and we’re in awe of the space program, but as a Vancouver-based business, don’t you want to support other local small businesses? Teximus, a small, woman-owned business, has been in continuous operation in Central Vancouver under the same management since 1988.
3. Find the Best – Locally. Investing in custom software development in Vancouver doesn’t mean compromising on quality. One of our clients said, “I’ve worked with a lot of software development teams over the years, and Octopus Technologies is one of the best.” The experience of our team – from project management to development to testing and support – is enhanced by the average of 10+ years that we’ve worked together on projects ranging from 1000 hours to 50,000+ hours.
4. Understanding your Business. Maybe you’re looking for custom software development in Vancouver for your specific line of business? Octopus Technologies has extensive experience with manufacturing, construction, transportation, medical, and service industries. If you are in a different business, with our process-based focus, we can work with you to quickly get up to speed to understand the way your business works and the specific requirements for your application.

If you can buy a software package that exactly fits your business needs, then you don’t need custom software.  However, if doing things a little (or a lot!) differently gives your company it’s competitive advantage, then you may need custom software.

If you’re a Vancouver business looking for custom software development, Octopus Technologies is practically in your backyard!  Contact Octopus Technologies today at 778-200-5336 or reach out here to talk about your business’ requirements and to find out more about how custom software development in Vancouver might be the right fit for you.

The post Finding the Right Fit appeared first on InTune.

“Bob”.

And Bob worked on their solution.  He was always there to add functionality or resolve issues. But then Bob died suddenly of a stroke or heart attack or cancer or being hit by a bus.  Or, to put a more positive spin on it, won the billion dollar PowerBall lottery and moved to Tahiti where he is now sipping frothy rum drinks out of a coconut.  Even in the case of the gentleman who had cancer, he thought he had 6-9 months and was gone within 3 months.  Far too ill to worry about the software support.  He truly did the best he could, but it wasn’t enough.

These poor fellows left a complete mess with their clients. Unintentional but a crisis nonetheless; causing these companies to call us in a panic. “Can you help us?” Of course, the answer in all things technical was “Maybe. It depends.”

Turns out, we could, and did, help these companies, ultimately writing an entire custom business solution for each of them. But there were several painful lessons.

1. Going with the proverbial one-person-show – While there are wonderful, well-intentioned developers out there who do a great job, the danger is always that something horrible may happen to them, as in the case of our clients. Or maybe something wonderful like a winning Powerball lottery ticket. Although in the case of the latter, one would hope that there would be some time for a hand-off of information and processes. Regardless, your business likely cannot run efficiently or even at all without your computer systems. You wouldn’t have the operations of your entire company held solely in the palm of one person, so please don’t put your information systems in such a precarious position.
2. Maybe not bleeding edge, but at least in the current decade – It’s extremely difficult and time consuming to stay on top of the most recent technologies. This is especially true when you are the only one doing all of the work, leaving little time for research or attending classes, etc. In a team environment, people do research and share it with their colleagues and often have lively “debates” (well, sometimes actual arguments) around the topics. Regardless, it opens up everyone to new ideas and methodologies. Working alone, and I am speaking from first-hand experience, is a very lonely time and doesn’t leave you much opportunity to gain exposure to new ideas and techniques which benefits your client in improved systems and streamlined methodologies.
3. You are NOT stuck with the situation – Often when we’re called in, the company says they felt “stuck” because the one person knew so much about the systems and they felt that they needed to retain the relationship, if only to show loyalty. That is a fallacy. There is no system that can’t be figured out although it may be an expensive undertaking. We have had multiple situations where we’ve not had any help on the system functionality and code and we’ve managed to work our way through it. Sometimes there is “documentation” comprised of some old dusty notebook printed on green-bar paper (remember that?) that hasn’t been updated in 20 years. Be aware that your company isn’t ever “stuck”. If you are working with a company or person that you’re not happy with, you can always change the situation. Find someone to work with that you like and trust.

So, don’t let your company get into a situation with one person holding the keys to your information systems. This can happen in companies of almost any size.  No one is irreplaceable and, if they are, you likely aren’t paying them enough. Get someone else brought up to speed, whether it’s internally cross-training the team or bringing in a consulting group like InTune to help. It doesn’t have to be perceived as a threat to “Bob” and, who knows, he may live longer if he’s not under so much stress.

Long live Bob…. And let’s hope your company survives it.

The post Alas, Poor Bob – The Weakest Link appeared first on InTune.

photo credit: Understanding via photopin (license)

Because this can be a time-consuming task, companies are tempted to think they’re saving money by skipping the requirements.  Don’t make this mistake!  Defining what you need before writing code is the best way to meet your business objectives and keep a software project in budget and on time.

If the software you need includes more than one module or you’re overwhelmed at the idea of defining all the requirements up front, break the project into smaller pieces.  You can define the requirements for phase 1, and while it’s being coded, you can start on requirements for phase 2.

Whether you’re partnering with an outside firm or relying on your internal team, the following steps are critical to creating an understandable and usable software requirements specification.

1. Understand the business process. Before you can write requirements, you must understand the specific way the business works.  Include a description of the business process in the specification. Words are good, and pictures are better.
2. Speak the language. A good specification is written in the company’s business language. Although certain words may seem to be synonyms, company-specific terms are not interchangeable because they’re part of the language and culture of the business.
3. Draw pictures.  Many ambiguities are eliminated with pictures.  One of the best ways to ensure the company and the software developers have a shared understanding of requirements is to include screen mockups.
4. Talk to the people responsible for the work.  The only way to figure out what a system needs to do is to talk to the people who are responsible for the work.  The discussion should include lots of questions, and the requirements analyst should do more listening than talking.  This leads to the next step . . .
5. Listen to the people responsible for the business process.  The may be the most important thing the person extracting the requirements can do, but it’s also the one most often ignored:  LISTEN.   The requirements analyst should do more listening than talking.
6. Invest enough time.  A good specification includes a lot of information, and it takes a significant investment in time to create it.    How much time?  It depends on many factors including the complexity of the system and the experience of the subject matter experts and requirements analyst, but a small application with no more than six pages/screens could require 8 hours or more.
7. Don’t assume a specification is set in stone.  No matter how well you define requirements, how clear the process is, and how accurate the screen mockups look, when people actually begin to use a system, they will come up with new ideas or find that even though it works as designed, it’s not exactly what’s required.  Changes to requirements mean updates to the system specification, because a specification is “final” only when the new system is working in production.  Note:  this is a very good reason to break a big system into smaller, manageable pieces.  If you include one typical screen in Phase 1, you can see how a mockup translates into a working page, and you can incorporate modifications to Phase 1 into the next phases.  This iterative approach is a great way to minimize surprises at the end of a project.

Save time and money with a good specification

A high quality, accurate specification saves time and money because it eliminates costly rework, and it improves satisfaction because you and your developers have a shared understanding of what’s required.

Following these steps doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a requirements document that communicates clearly – that depends in large part on the skills of the people involved.  But ignoring these steps increases the probability that your new software will take longer than expected, cost more than planned, and fail to meet your expectations and business needs.

For a more thorough look at capturing Software Requirements, download our FREE white Paper here!

White paper: 7 Critical Steps for Software Requirements

For more than 25 years, Octopus Technologies has worked with clients to define requirements and create high quality software requirements documents.  Call today for expert advice on defining your software system requirements – 778-200-5336.

The post Software Requirements Specification: Time Saving Investment appeared first on InTune.

Your CFO is yelling, “This has to stop!”

Your COO says, “We have to get this new functionality in place.”

Here are five questions to help you decide whether to pull the plug on the project or keep going.

1.       Does the software work so far?

If your project manager is telling you that the system is 50% finished, but you’re still waiting for the first opportunity to test the system, stop the project now.

With the tools available today, you should have the ability to test the first screen or module of your new system shortly after the design phase is complete.  If it’s late in the project and you still haven’t had the opportunity to test working code, there’s a very low chance that you’ll end up with a working system at the end.

2.       Will the finished software address the business goal?

Based on what you’ve seen so far, will the finished product work as planned to solve the business problem?   If the software is late, can you still take advantage of the business opportunity as planned?  If not, cancel the project now.  If the product doesn’t look like it’s going to meet your needs when it’s 50% complete, it’s not likely to meet your needs at 100%.

3.       Are there good reasons for the project to exceed planned time and cost?

Did requirements change?  Were new requirements added?  If so, it’s reasonable to change the original time and cost estimate.

If the requirements didn’t change, did your software development project manager explain the time and cost overruns and provide you with an updated estimate of the time and cost to complete?   Can the additional time and cost be justified?  If so, consider continuing the project.

4.       Can the team deliver a sound final product?

Software – even software development packages with 1000’s of users – always has bugs.  When you find bugs, are they tracked and fixed?  Are you able to test the corrected code in a reasonable time?

If what you’ve tested so far works reliably after the developers fix your bugs, it’s likely that the final product will work reliably, too.

5.       What does your gut tell you to do?

Do you trust the project manager and the team to deliver?  Do you feel optimistic about the final outcome of the project?  Something inside is telling you whether to proceed or stop, and you need to factor that into your decision.

It’s not easy to decide whether to pull the plug on a project into which you’ve invested time and money.  If you answered NO to question 1 or 2, you have tangible reasons to stop your project now, but if you answered YES to questions 1 through 4, you’re going to have to rely on question 5 – and input from trusted peers and those involved in the project – to make a decision.

Ultimately your business software should be a valuable corporate asset that helps you achieve your business objectives.  Anything less isn’t worth your investment.

If you’d like more information about turning your software into a key business asset, contact Teximus for a free consultation.

The post When to pull the plug on a software project appeared first on InTune.

1. Hire a qualified developer:   Ask questions and check references to be sure the person has the qualifications you need.  When fighting for a job, people can be careless with their handling of the truth.
2. Hire more than one developer:  Instead of hiring one programmer, hire two.  If you can afford to hire only one person, invest in an external consultant who will become familiar with your code by working with your employee on specific tasks.
3. Contract with an experienced services firm:  If you hire a software development firm, be sure the company has qualified developers who’ll work on your project.  Also confirm that they cross-train and/or will assign more than one person to each of your projects.
4. Control the source:  Even if you have only one developer, use a source control tool to manage changes to your system.
5. Keep your versions organized:  Keep a set of code for the production version of your system separate from the source code that is being changed to address new and modified business requirements.
6. Keep your working version clean:  Have your team “build” each time changes are checked into source control.  A build compiles all the code andags programs that are incomplete, so your working version will actually work.
7. Manage tasks:   Even if you can’t afford the sophisticated tools big companies use to associate business requirements with code changes, you can create a spreadsheet to track tasks.  Start with your planned tasks, and have developers update the list at least weekly, though daily is better, to show status (planned, completed, and in process).

Follow the guidelines above and create an environment where you’ll always have someone who’s qualified to update a very important business asset – your software.

Need an outside check to be sure you have solid business software systems that follow industry standards?  ContactOctopus Technologies today!

The post 7 Ways to Avoid Business Software Failure appeared first on InTune.

Last night you worked until 11, so you’re running behind this morning and grab a couple of donuts for breakfast.

• At noon you gulp down two slices of pepperoni pizza as you speed walk to the shopoor to look into a production problem (does that count as exercise?).
• At 6 pm, your inbox pings delivery of the 122nd email of the day, and you’re too tired for the gym, so you guzzle a caffeine boost and inhale two loaded hot dogs from the vending machine as you keep wading through emails.
• You’re shutting down your computer at 8 pm and glance at your last email: a key supplier apologizing because she can’t ship as promised. You frantically start searching for alternate sources.

If this is your typical day, when you go in for your annual physical, you may discover you’ve gained weight and have high blood pressure. What goes into your human system directly impacts your health and performance.

Business health

Just like your human processes directly impact your health, your business process directly impacts your company’s health and performance. Do any of these sound familiar?

• Sales and order entry collect the same information from customers who wonder why they have to provide the same thing twice; information in your sales system sometimes doesn’t match what’s in order entry.
• For years, production has complained that a manual count is the only way to know what’s in inventory, and when no one has time for that, scheduled orders can’t be built on time.
• Between production delays and bad customer information, invoicing takes too long, and cashow suffers.
• You completed your annual “state of the business” report and realize the order to invoice cycle is 15% longer and revenue dropped 20% last year.

If your business suffers from issues like this, it may be time for a checkup.

How to get healthy

Your doctor, barber or hairdresser, and dozens of magazine articles claim to know how to improve your health. Everyone has a story about what they’ve done or plan to do to get healthy. Some people insist they have a fix-everything pill, but you can’t get healthy just by taking a pill, and you can’t get a workout by talking about it. You have to make lifestyle changes: say yes to raw carrots and no to birthday cake, yes to yoga and no to three hours in front of the TV. In the same way, if anyone says they have a quick fix “pill” for your business, beware; it doesn’t exist. Improving business process health requires:

• Choosing to change.
• Identifying issues and their root causes.
• Understanding the possible solutions and the cost of each.
• Making tough decisions.

What’s the problem?

Whether you’re working on improving your personal or business health, some approaches will never work:

• Wishing the problems would go away.
• Talking about the possible issues and solutions while maintaining the status quo.
• Telling yourself and everyone else that next week, month, or year will be better.
• Trusting your business’s future to luck and chance.

Your doctor uses your input and test results to make recommendations for improving your health. How do you identify what’s causing poor business health and define a “prescription” for getting healthy? Professionals specializing in business improvement use interviews, analysis, and input from employees involved in the process to define what works as well as what doesn’t and why. Then they work with you and your team to develop a shared understanding of current processes and to construct a plan to eliminate the issues and get your business healthy.

Who’s responsible?

If you don’t give your doctor honest answers and fully disclose all issues, the reliability of the diagnosis suffers. To get a business healthy, leaders must:

• Acknowledge there’s a problem.
• Communicate openly – talking and listening – about issues within the business.
• Accept responsibility for problems and solutions.
• Create an environment in which employees confidently identify problems and recommend solutions.

Leaders can’t know the details of every job in a business so they have to rely on the people doing the jobs to let them know issues exist. This can only happen when employees trust leaders to listen and feel confident that there are no negative repercussions for identifying problems. A doctor can prescribe medications, give you food recommendations, and order you to get 30 minutes of exercise per day. Will this improve your health? Only if you choose to follow the doctor’s orders. For a business to get healthy:

• The leadership team must be committed to change and be willing to invest in solutions.
• Leaders, subject area experts, and other members of the organization must prioritize and allocate time for interviews and team meetings focused on improvement.
• The CxO who “owns” the processes being improved must actively lead the organization through the necessary changes, including the inevitable pain changes bring.
• The management team must live out the commitment to change by rewarding positive change and never punishing failures that result from attempts to improve.

Take control

To get healthy, make good health a primary goal and high priority. To make your business healthy:

• Make business health a high priority.
• Embrace change in words and actions.
• Devote resources to business process improvement.
• Champion improvement objectives and communicate them throughout your organization.
• Be accountable – and hold others accountable – for achieving improvement objectives.
• Reward and recognize achievement of improvement goals.

Don’t wait for wishes and luck to change your business for the better. Take control and make this the year your business gets healthy.

Reward those who persevere despite failure: Thomas Edison conducted more than 1600 tests that FAILED before he found the right material for the filament in a light bulb. From the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, read Edison’s Story.

Busy running your business? You want to improve your business process, but you’re already working 80 hours per week managing and leading your company. There’s no way you can carve out another 40 hours per week to conduct a process improvement project, and you don’t want to hire a full-time business analyst. Call Teximus. Our team has successfully conducted more than 50 process improvement projects including:

• Womb to tomb: Prospect, sale, order, produce, ship, invoice, support.
• Sales and forecast
• Accounting month end close
• Construction
• Manufacturing

We’ll work with you to identify improvement objectives, conduct interviews, facilitate team meetings to walk through the current process and identify required changes, define measurable tasks to achieve improvement goals, and follow up on progress. Contact us today to speak with one of our experienced business process experts.

The post How healthy is your business process? appeared first on InTune.

Data mining is the process of analyzing your data to discover patterns that can be used to predict future behavior such as buying patterns, fraudulent activity, and resource demand. One of the most visible instances of data mining is the analysis of your personal information by credit agencies. Credit agencies store your personal data including your name, SSN, where you live, where you used to live, and even such information as if you got married, got divorced, changed jobs, got sued, filed for bankruptcy, or were arrested. This information is used by lending agencies to decide whether or not you should receive credit.

You probably have direct experience with the second most visible instance of data mining – being targeted for specific purchases. When you receive promotions from stores where you shop that relate to your recent purchases, it may be because a computer analyzed your purchases, noticed a pattern, and tried to predict what your next purchase would be. For example, if you bought a new grill, you might just be in the market for new deck furniture, and maybe if you received a coupon for 15% off all deck furniture, that might be enough incentive for you to make a purchase.

This type of data mining can be seen as a way for a business to develop a long-term relationship by anticipating what a customer might buy and thinking of it before he or she does. Businesses hope the incentives they offer will convince you to buy from them. By anticipating your wants and needs, a company hopes to keep you as their customer and not have you defect to another company.

But data mining also can be used for less obvious analysis. For example, have you ever gotten a call from your credit card company asking you where you physically are and if you are in possession of you credit card? If you live in North Carolina, and suddenly a large charge appears on your credit card from a company in Colorado, the credit card company computers mayag this as possible fraud and may call to verify that the purchase is actually valid. Your buying habits and patterns are stored in a database, and if you deviate from the patterns significantly, aag is raised to alert the credit card company of possible fraud.

How do you start data mining to move your business forward? You can use off the shelf data mining software if there’s a package that fits your business functions. Or, work with your consultant to develop custom data mining software to provide you with the features you need to maximize the return on the data you store. Custom software meansexibility – if you need to deviate from the original scope of your data mining development project, you can do so. Custom software can be an important element in your strategy to ensure that your business remains profitable and competitive.

How does data mining affect you?

Much of your life is stored in various databases. And not only is this data available to legitimate purveyors of information, but since the information is stored on a computer, it is – unfortunately – available to computer hackers and identity thieves. If a news report informed you that the American Express credit card database had been hacked into, you would probably assume that the hackers were looking for personal information to make illegal purchases. But recently, an article in the media reported an attack on a database full of personal data stored by a company called ChoicePoint. This attack compromised the personal information of approximately 145,000 people all across the US. ChoicePoint‘s website says they have access to 14 billion records on individuals and businesses and goes on to state that you can use this data to make informed decisions. This company does not offer a service such as a credit card or financial services or a product. Their business is simply providing the storage of, and then access to, data that can be mined for information. Data itself has become a business. The goal of this attack and others like it? Getting your personal data.

How can you use data mining successfully in your business?

Data mining is not just about credit, fraud, and purchases. You can use data mining techniques with information you already have about your customers and their purchase history to:

• Identify motivation behind buying decisions.
• Forecast new business opportunities.
• Analyze markets.
• Project resource demands.
• Predict trends and patterns.

Data mining can help you discover new markets and ways to be more profitable in existing markets. It can help you avoid the embarrassing situation of having to tell a customer you can’t deliver because you didn’t plan well enough. And data mining can spot trends and patterns that allow you tailor your production and output so that you have just what you need when you need it.

You can use data mining to make the right decisions to keep your business at the top of its market. Consult with Teximus for custom data mining solutions!

The post Data Mining: Tool or Threat? appeared first on InTune.

During process characterization:

You choose what is called the Process Owner. The Process Owner is the person(s) who initiates, champions, and supports the process improvement project and is the person(s) with overall responsibility and authority for the processes included in the project. The Process Owner is responsible for:

• Identifying improvement objectives or critical business issue(s) targeted for mapping and/or improvement.
• Defining the boundaries of the process to be characterized.
• Working with the facilitators to ensure project success by providing the support necessary to establish the project’s priority and ensure employees’ cooperation.

Your consultants and the Process Owner meet to:

• Review the improvement objectives and process boundaries.
• Agree upon a plan of action.
• Identify any “wrong colored rocks” (solutions that are not acceptable to the Process Owner, such as hiring new employees).

The Process Owner identifies Team Members who are responsible for:

• Providing information about their role in the process, making improvement suggestions, and identifying problems with the process during an interview with your consultants.
• Attending a team meeting to review the process maps and any associated issues.

Your consultants and the Process Owner draft an informational memo to be distributed to Team Members. This memo should indicate the Process Owner’s dedication to the project, ask for the employee’s cooperation and help, stress the confidentiality of the interviews, and include a project overview and interview schedule

Your consultants then

• Conduct the team member interviews, synthesize the results, develop process maps, identify disconnects, and document suggestions for improvement.
• Facilitate a team meeting with all interviewees to review interview findings and validate the “As Is” process maps and disconnects.
• Correct the “As Is” process maps and issues based on results of the team meeting.
• Facilitate a team meeting with all interviewees to develop the “Should Be” map and identify action items to accomplish the “Should Be” process.
• Compile a final report that includes all issues, action items, and process maps (the deliverables).

Using process characterization is one of the best ways to streamline and organize your business processes, which ultimately improves one of every business’ key processes – calculation of the bottom line.

Optimize your business with process characterization! Uncover inefficiencies and enhance your operations. Contact Teximus for expert consultants who guide you through seamless process improvement. Streamline workflows for a maximized bottom line.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The post How to Improve Your Business Through Process Characterization appeared first on InTune.

What is It?

Process characterization is the orderly assessment and documentation of operational procedures and relationships. Process characterization gives you an overall view of your business processes, a specific indication of areas that need improvement, and a picture of the parts of the process that work well. Before a process characterization begins, you meet with your consultants to identify your improvement objectives. Do you need to shorten your closing cycle? Tighten inventory controls? Reduce your cost for customer support?

During a process characterization, your consultants conduct interviews with your employees, summarize the information into process steps and issues, develop easy to read graphics or maps depicting how the business works, and facilitate team meetings to review the maps and findings. You may be surprised at some of the double-work and disconnects that become clear during this process.

What Problems Does a Process Characterization Identify?

Most departments manage their own job functions well. However, it is possible for each department to exceed all of their goals while the overall system fails to meet management or customer expectations. This is called local optimization and may occur due to inadequate communication, improvement efforts that are not optimized across functions, or a lack of strategic alignment of goals among departments or functional areas. Any of these situations can create:

• disconnects where critical information is not communicated
• duplication of job tasks
• situations where consequences of one department’s decisions are not fully understood or even considered in the light of their impact on other departments, potentially hindering the other departments’ ability to achieve their goals
• unnecessary work.

What Happens During a Process Characterization?

A process characterization project can identify many of the above-listed situations. Information about how tasks are interrelated and the sharing and transfer of information among functions can be used to streamline the system and increase the effectiveness of the system as a whole. An effective system means an efficient team, which means a successful way to run your business.

A process characterization is very useful as a first step in developing a system requirements document, defining and documenting work procedures, or enhancing employees’ understanding of the overall business.

Deliverables

The final deliverable is a Process Characterization Report that includes the following:

• As Is” process map: The “As Is” process maps document theow of the work as it exists before improvements are made. The maps, based on the Rummler-Brache methodology, depict theow across departments and functional areas.
• List of Disconnects: Areas where process steps are missing, deficient, or add no value are graphically associated with the process on the maps; these areas are good targets for process improvement.
• Findings Summary: Grouping of disconnects into categories called Findings.
• Suggestions for Improvement: Suggestions made by Team Members during interviews or as part of the Team Meeting.
• “Should Be” process map: The “Should Be” map documents the ideal process for the future.
• Action Items: This lists the steps identified by the Team to move towards the “Should Be” process and eliminate the disconnects defined during the “As Is” meeting.

Process characterization may be just the course you need to take in the new year to get your business into top shape. Remember, a smoothow of information maximizes all your corporate assets.

For personalized assistance in streamlining your processes, contact Teximus, your experts in custom software solutions and business process optimization.

Image courtesy of ddpavumba / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The post Process Characterization: Boosting Business Health appeared first on InTune.