Custom Software’s Impact on Small Businesses The benefits of custom software development are many, and it’s a good idea for any small business to consider it. While there are many different types of applications that can be created for use in your business, these five stand out as being especially valuable: Flexibility. Ability to change on a dime. Goliath off-the-shelf applications are difficult to make your own. Faster turnaround times. It’s easier to modify if the system was designed for it. Cost savings for long-term contracts or recurring fees. Lower risk by leveraging on prior work done by other developers/consultants/system
Category: Business
Is It the Right Career Move for You? You’ve probably heard that small companies are great places to work. But what does that really mean? And why should you work for one instead of another large company? In this article, we’ll explore these questions and more. We’ll also discuss why working for a big enterprise can be worth it if you’re interested in advancing your career or getting quick results from your job. Why You’re Probably Wrong to Assume That Bigger Is Better. You might be wrong to assume that big companies are better. In fact, they can be worse.
When Problems Loom, Rise to the Occasion I’m sitting here with yet another thing to learn. When does it end? It never does. I’ve faced that reality years ago. Just when you think you’ve learned everything that you need for your job, a new system comes around, you find a new job with entirely new skillsets to master, etc. I work in the IT sector and the pace is outrageous. It may sound like a complaint but I personally love it. I love it because I don’t get overwhelmed anymore with anything that’s thrown at me. I see it
Navigating the Perils of Reactivity Why is it that individuals believe that panicking makes the problem a higher priority? If you panic every single time, the urgency seems less each time. How many scenarios can we go through before we realize that this is not the approach that you should take when problem solving? I understand that culture is developed. I’ve gone through plenty of them, and there’s one that I despise, and that’s panic culture. Unfortunately, individuals think that by raising concern and adding 10 exclamation points at the end of a sentence raises the urgency of the
A Roadmap to Achievement Who here has worked for a company where each functional department defines their objectives? The goals are set within small siloed teams. When asked how to improve sales, sales is the only team that’s looked at. Now, how many of you have worked for a company that defines short and long term objectives and then each team brainstorms on how to help with achieving those objectives? That’s the key to success. I primarily work in IT but always look at the business side first. If the projects that IT is working on do not align
Nurturing Leadership, Today and Tomorrow It always boggles my mind how many people in leadership positions clinch to their roles with no thought into ever leaving the company. Whether you own a company or are employed by one, succession planning is something that you should always be thinking about. What is the reason for not investing time in succession planning? I strongly believe that most people are afraid of the thought experiment. Most of the time, the individuals are employed by a company and they have no thought to leave. Convenience is prioritized in all of their actions. For example,
Factors That Prolong Software Projects I had a conversation today that was related to going 2 years over the proposed timeline. The question that I was asked was, “how does this even happen? How is it possible to go a couple of years over the proposed timeline when building software?” My response was, “it’s a lot easier than you think.” I went through a couple of scenarios with this group and I think I’ve finally made my point. I wanted to list out some of the key-points of our discussion. No Requirements One of the craziest projects that I’ve ever
The Cornerstone of Efficiency and Consistency How many times have we all been here? One individual knows how to go through the entire process (whatever that process may be) and that’s that. The information lives in their head. Sometimes it’s inadvertent and other times it’s intentional. After all, you can’t fire John if he’s the only person that knows how to do this, right? That’s more on the negative side. Most of the time, it’s just something that people don’t have time to create, or don’t make time to create. They’re busy with other tasks and don’t see the
Driving Innovation and Growth Too much business or too much technology. That’s what you’ll be presented with when getting introduced to individuals in the IT leadership space. Each have their benefits and each have their flaws. The ultimate goal is an individual with both technology and business sense, but it consistently seems difficult to find. I primarily interact with IT leadership positions that have either of the two qualities, but not both. It’s a difficult concept to explain to each since they’re so focused and set in their ways. It’s counterproductive to the organization to have either, unless the
Forging Connections that Drive Success Have you ever wondered why you’re not succeeding as a CIO? You have the technical knowledge, you know the ins-and-outs of anything and everything technology related, but your projects never make it past the board. What is going on? Why is it that you have great ideas but nobody else sees or cares about them. It’s probably due to the relationships that you should have built but haven’t. Let’s take a look at an important and often overlooked concept: relationship building. The First Year Your first year as a leader is filled with excitement. Normally