IT STRATEGY CREATION
IT organisations are still seen by many companies as a service area, yet IT/digitalisation solutions are increasingly a key strategic area for achieving corporate goals in sectors traditionally remote from IT. Think of the agricultural sector, the spread of precision farming and agricultural digitalisation.
Our methodology
The strategy creation process always begins with a situation assessment; we assess the currency of other strategies affecting the IT strategy. Using our own method, we analyse the given area’s financial, IT/infrastructural (technological/application portfolio, cloud, on-premise solutions, server park, internal/external networks, internal developmental, operational, test capacity, external supplier contracts, suitability and potential) and HR aspects. We use trend, benchmark, SWOT, etc. analyses to evaluate the hidden potential of the given area, then, according to market best practices and state-of-the-art examples, we recommend a challenging, yet achievable vision for the future. Throughout the process, we pay special attention to the active involvement of stakeholders in the strategic area, as well as the company’s unique organisational and cultural aspects. In our experience, ready-made methodologies are at best a good basis, the ability to customize sets apart the average from the outstanding.
Once we have implemented our vision for the future and achieved support for it from within the organisation, in order to achieve our goals, we undertake the management of strategic programmes and projects, as well as their professional support, thus ensuring the coherence of creative planning, operational implementation and review. Strategies are increasingly living, ever-changing products; we also support their regular review, as well as the continuous change-management of priority projects.
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
In the digital age, the introduction, development and removal of systems are an everyday part of company life. How is it then possible that, according to various analyses, 71-94% of projects worth over 100 million HUF fail, or significantly exceed the pre-planned budget and deadline? Our experience shows us that this can be traced back to a wide range of reasons, such as shortcomings in project preparation and Business Case/Proof of Concept, unrealistic deadline and budget expectations of the Board/management, the selection of a supplier on a not necessarily professional basis, weaknesses in project portfolio management, project volume which exceeds the organisation’s performance ability and tolerance for change, lack of programme/project managers/quality assurance, or their mistakes, inappropriate use of project test management methodologies, unrealistic function/budget/deadline ideas of the business areas and constant changes in their requirements, the relative inflexibility of the IT field, uncertainties in the system’s architectural landscape, insufficient internal or external competence/resources, inaccurate documentation of processes, systems, regulations. etc. We pay attention to every detail in order to avoid an avalanche caused by the above – and other - failure factors.
In most cases the suppliers are officially blamed, often, unfortunately, not without reason. However, a truly effective team of experts supporting the implementation of the system, besides actively managing the supplier side, can become an indispensable partner in reducing most of the risks listed above, thereby maximizing the chances of the project’s successful introduction.
Many of our team members have completed 20-50 system implementations; they see through the programme/project in a complex way and can support the system implementation using customised methodology in line with the company’s strategic goals.
TEST STRATEGY, TEST MANAGEMENT
One of the keys to software development and system implementation projects is the appropriate testing of functionality, since this can answer the question of whether we got what we planned for and bought. On the other hand, we still find bugs in the operating systems and browsers of the largest international vendors, which could be eliminated simply through continuous updates. In our experience, testing still does not always get enough emphasis in large software development/system implementation projects, which poses a serious risk, since there is very low general tolerance for software product failures. Dissatisfaction caused by functional failures in software products, or their incompatibility with other software, can lead to loss of customers and partners, inefficient and therefore more costly operational processes, employee dissatisfaction and the failure of our system implementation.
In our opinion, a test strategy and methodology appropriate to the sector, the company's operational processes and company culture, adapted to the size and quality parameters of the system implementation, but at the same time based on international best practices, provides the best results, therefore this is what we recommend.
Many of our team members have 10+ years’ experience in test management and testing, in both manual and automatic testing fields. They support the creation and introduction of successful software products with the interests of business and IT in mind.