What are the top software companies in India to work for?

The company which not only provides the best software solutions to clients but also has the great culture, could be a choice to work for. There are bunch of companies in India considering start-ups to big giants, but the company with the help of which we can relate our study, we can get chance for good industry exposure and flexibility of ideas to convert into the work is the best company to work for. 

I have been working at iFour Technolab Pvt. Ltd. an asp.net software development company in india since a long and it has covered all the aspects of mine in terms of work satisfaction. There some pillars to identify the work culture in any company. Let me get to you to those pillars in our company.

Company hires the best people which can suit with the culture of the company. Starting from interns to senior developer all are selected with best talent in particular domain. 

Company makes sure that all the employees know the vision and mission of company. If an employee doesn’t know about the vision it becomes just another job which doesn’t help in productivity at individual as well as organizational level.

Company very well knows that best decisions can come from anywhere. So company allows everyone to speak and understands the perspectives of all in order to take any crucial decision. Company has developed culture in such a way that all the employees can directly communicate with senior management for any silly doubts. The freedom of ideas and creativity is the key to create the exceptional product which can differentiate company from others. At usual times company engages a meeting where brainstorming activity happens among the employees.

Here all the employees work as a team not as a bunch of individuals. It becomes very essential thing for every employee to understand his contribution in a team towards a project assigned to him. Whenever he starts assuming himself as an individual in a team he starts breaking coordination which leads to imperfect product. 

Last but not the least, every employees here are given good incentives which motivates them to enhance their productivity every day.

Take a look at our portfolio where we display some of our work and case study on custom software development.

IT Audit & Types of IT Audit

The word ‘Audit’ coined from the Latin word ‘audire’ which means ‘to hear’. From the time of ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, the practice of accounting and auditing existed. Auditing was executed in ancient India. Kautilya’s ‘Arthashastra’ existed in 4^th century BC in Mauryan period and carries great importance. He stated that the head of finance and audit should independently and individually report the king.

The Comptroller and Auditor General Of India was formerly called the Accountant General to the Government of India in 1858 and later labelled as the Auditor General of India in 1860. The Constitution Act, 1950, re-designated the Auditor General as Comptroller and Auditor General. It is understood that the first practice of a computerized accounting system was at General Electric in 1954. The industry soon recognized that they needed to develop their own software and the first of the generalized audit software (GAS) was developed. Information Technology Auditing (IT auditing) began as Electronic Data Process (EDP) Auditing and developed basically as a result of the rise in technology in accounting systems.

In 1977, the first edition of Control Objectives was issued. This publication is now identified as Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (CobiT). CobiT is the set of commonly accepted IT control objectives for IT auditors. In 1994, Electronic Data Processing Auditors Association (EDPAA) reformed its name to Information Systems Audit and Control Association.

IT Audit is defined as the procedure of collecting and evaluating evidence to decide whether a computer system safeguards assets, maintains data integrity, allows organizational goals to be achieved effectively and uses resources efficiently.

Let’s look at various types of IT audit that are conducted in software companies in India:

• Financial audits

A third-party inspection of a company's financial records and reporting initiates. Its objective is to review the financial statements; and to state whether these statements offer factual view of transactions performed by an organization.

• Operational audits

A future-oriented, systematic, and independent assessment of organizational activities of asp.net software companies in India. Financial data may be used, but the key sources of evidence are the operational policies and accomplishments related to organizational objectives. Internal controls and efficiencies may be assessed during this type of review.

• Integrated Audit

This is a grouping of an operational audit, department review, and IS audit application controls review.

• Forensic audits

An investigation and evaluation of a firm's or individual's financial facts for use as evidence in court. A forensic audit can be conducted in order to accuse a party for fraud, misuse or other financial claims.

• Investigative audits

This is an audit that takes place as a consequence of a report of unusual or doubtful activity on the part of an individual or a department of c# software company in India. It is usually engrossed on specific aspects of the work of a department or individual.

• Compliance audit

A compliance audit is an all-inclusive review of an organization's adherence to regulatory guidelines. Independent accounting, security or IT consultants assess the strength and thoroughness of compliance. For example, you may decide whether the business is complying with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards on the clearance of toxic waste. Or you may look at whether a credit card company is ensuing federal law with regards to charging its cardholders permissible fees and interest.

IT Audit helps ASP DOT NET software companies in India in numerous was such as:

• Protecting assets-h/w, s/w, people, files
• Preserving data integrity
• Letting organizational goal to be accomplished effectively and using resources efficiently
• Obeying the Compliances of Regulatory and Legal requirement
• Nonstop improvement

Important terminologies used in IT Audit

IT Audit is defined as the procedure of collecting and evaluating evidence to decide whether a computer system defends assets, maintains data integrity, allows organizational goals to be achieved effectively and uses resources efficiently.

Here are important terminologies used in IT Audit by majority of software companies in India:

Audit - An audit is an evidence collecting process. Audit evidence is used to assess how well audit criteria are being met. Audits must be objective, unbiased, and independent, and the audit process must be both systematic and documented.

Auditee - An auditee is an organization (or section of an organization) that is being audited. Organizations can comprise companies, corporations, enterprises, firms, charities, associations, and institutions. Organizations can be either incorporated or unincorporated and can be privately or publicly possessed.

Auditor - An auditor is a person who conducts the audits. Auditors gather evidence in order to evaluate how well audit criteria are being met. They must be objective, unbiased, independent, and proficient.

Audit client - An audit client is any person or organization that appeals for an audit. Internal audit clients can be either the auditee or audit program leader whereas external audit clients can include regulators or customers or any other stakeholders that have a legitimate or contractual right or responsibility to carry out an audit.

Audit criteria - Audit criteria comprise policies, procedures, and requirements. Audit evidence is used to decide how well audit criteria are being fulfilled. Audit evidence is used to decide how well policies are being implemented, how well procedures are being executed, and how well requirements are being charted.

Audit evidence - Audit evidence includes records, actual statements, and other certifiable information that is related to the audit criteria being used. Audit criteria contain policies, procedures, and requirements.

Audit findings - Audit findings are outcome from a process that evaluates audit evidence and equates it against audit criteria. Audit findings can demonstrate that audit criteria are being fulfilled (conformity) or that they are not being fulfilled (nonconformity).

Assertion - Assertions or management assertions in audit or auditing purely means what management claims. For example, if a management declares that internal controls are effective then it is an entitlement or assertion made by management.

Confirmations - The acceptance of a documented or verbal response from an independent third party.

Reperformance - Reperformance involves rechecking a sample of the computations and transfers of data.  Rechecking of computations comprises testing mathematical accuracy.

Audit charter – It refers to a document arranged by an organization for internal control and audit, which clearly states the management’s responsibility, authority and accountability for IS audit. An audit charter is a charter that institutes an internal audit department for an existing software company in India.

Responsibility covers :

• Mission
• scope
• Independence
• Auditee’s necessity

Authority covers:

• Right of access to information, personnel, locations and systems applicable to the performance of audits
• Functions to be audited
• Organizational structure, including reporting positions to board and senior management

Accountability addresses :

• Designated/intended recipients of the report
• Assessment of compliance with standards
• Agreed completion dates
• Agreed budgets
• Agreed actions e.g. penalties when either party fails to carry out its responsibility.

Follow-up - Review of verdicts i.e. actions taken to resolve internal audit findings. They may be tested to ensure that preferred results were achieved.

Nowadays, IT auditing has become an integral part of almost any software company in India. This has created a mandate to know the implication of important terminologies that are used in IT audit.

ITIL Service Operations

Service Operation

The ITIL Service Operation ensures that IT services like fulfilling the user requests, carrying out the daily operational activities, resolving or fixing the service problems, are taken into account and delivered in an effective way.

The Service Operation includes different phases, namely :

• Service Desk
• Incident Management
• Event Management
• Request Fulfillment
• Access Management
• Problem Management
• Technical Management
• IT Operations Management
• Application Management

SERVICE DESK

The objective of the Service Desk includes :

• To serve as FIRST Point of Contact (FPOC)
• Play a vital role in achieving Customer Satisfaction
• First Level Fix (FLF) and First Level Diagnosis (FLD)
• To coordinate the activities between End User and IT Service Provision Teams
• To OWN the Logged Request and ensure the Closure.
• Escalate as appropriate
• To support other IT Provision Activities on need basis

Types of Service Desk :

• Central Service Desk
• Local or Distributed Local Service Desk
• Virtual Service Desk
• The Sun Model
• Specialized Service Desk

INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

The objective of the Incident Management includes :

• To restore the Normal service operation as fast as possible for the process continuation
• To keep the track and log of the incidents wherever applicable
• To deal with all incidents consistently
• To assist Problem Management team as required
• To assist Service Desk for any kind of RFCs

Activities :

• Incident Management Support
• Incident Categorization
• Immediate resolution of the Incident by 1st Level Support
• Incident Resolution by 2nd Level Support
• Handling of the Major Incidents taking place
• Incident Monitoring
• Incident Management Reporting

EVENT HANDLING

The objective of the Event Handling includes :

• Detect Events, Analyze them and take the appropriate action
• Monitor, Record and filter the relevant events
• To do trend Analysis as a part of Proactive Measure
• Contributes to maintain SLAs.

REQUEST FULFILLEMENT

The objective of the Request Fulfillment includes :

• To communicate the information regarding existing Standard services and the procedures
• To provide channel and mechanism for users to avail the standard IT services
• To provide the standard services to users

Activities :

• Request Fulfillment Support
• Request Log and Categorization
• Request Model Execution
• Request Monitoring
• Request Closure and Evaluation

ACCESS MANAGEMENT

The objective of the Access Management includes :

• Granting authorized users the access to their Required services
• Ensure that the Right level of access is provided
• To revoke the access after getting approvals
• To prevent the non-authorized access

PROBLEM MANAGEMENT

The objective of the Problem Management includes :

• To ensure that problems are identified and resolved
• To eliminate incidents taking place continuously
• To minimize the impact of the incidents or problems that cannot be prevented

IT OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

The objective of the IT Operations Management includes :

• Ensure the Infrastructure Stability by performing basic level jobs
• Support day to day operational activities
• To improve overall operational performance and saving costs
• Initial level diagnosis of operational incidents

Activities :

• Backup and Restore jobs, Tape Management
• On call (telephone) or Remote Control resolution
• Facilities Management (e.g. Printer management)
• Basic H/W and S/W installations/configurations

TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT

The objective of the Technical Management includes :

• Design of efficient, resilient and cost-effective IT Infrastructure for the organization
• Maintain Technical Knowledge and Expertise as required to manage this IT Infrastructure
• Availability of actual technical resources during failure
• To provide all the necessary technical resources for complete lifecycle

Activities :

• Manage the complete lifecycle of Organization's IT Infrastructure
• Constantly update Technical expertise

APPLICATION MANAGEMENT

The objective of the IT Operations Management includes :

• Identify the requirement of Applications
• Design efficient, resilient and cost effective applications for managing IT Infrastructure
• To ensure security of the applications
• Maintain day-to-day activities operational applications
• Provide support during Application Failures
• Efficiently improving the functionality of applications as per organization’s needs

Activities :

• Manage applications throughout their lifecycle
• Assist Design, Build, Test and implement applications
• Maintain knowledge and expertise for Managing the applications
• Make Application resources available whenever required

Conclusion: Thus, each and every custom and software development company should implement the service operation and perform necessary activities, taking into consideration the objectives, to reach the best possible outcome. This will ease up the workflow of an IT organization with the effective and efficient outcomes and maintain the positive customer relationship.

References :
http://wiki.en.it-processmaps.com/index.php/ITIL_Service_Operation

Steganography

Steganography is the art of protected or hidden writing. The purpose of steganography is covert communication to hide the presence of a message from a third party asp.net software companies in India. 

Steganography methods:

Substitution Methods (Spatial-Domain): A secured robust approach of information security is planned. It presents two module based LSB (Least Significant Bit) methods for inserting secret data in the LSB’s of blue mechanisms and partial green components of random pixel places in the edges of images for the software companies in India. An adaptive LSB based steganography is planned for embedding data based on data available in MSB’s of red, green, and blue components of arbitrarily selected pixels across plane areas. It is more robust as it is linked with an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). A new high capacity Steganography scheme using 3D geometric models is projected. The algorithm re-triangulates a part of a triangular mesh and inserts the secret information into newly added position of triangular meshes. 

Transform Domain Methods: A method that customs two gray scale images of size 128 x 128 that are used in software companies India as surreptitious images and inserting is done in RGB and YCbCr domains. The quality of stego images are decent in RGB domain by comparing the PSNR values. It uses Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT) to hide secret images in the color cover image. It compared the PSNR values and image quality when inserting is done in the RGB and YCbCr domains. Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT) have been recommended to hide multiple secret images and keys in a color cover image which is more effective. The cover image is categorized in the YCbCr color space. Two keys are found, encrypted and hidden in the cover image using IWT.

Statistical Methods: A practical methodology for minimizing additive distortion in steganography with general implanting operation which is more flexible and easy. Syndrome-Trellis Codes (STC) are used to increase the safety of the system. STC divides the samples into various bins (binning) which is a public tool used for resolving many information-theoretic and also data-hiding problems. The planned method can be used in both spatial & transform domain. A proper distortion function is selected which makes statistical detection difficult. Once the stenographer specifies the distortion function, the planned framework provides all tools for constructing practical embedding schemes. The distortion method or the embedding operations need not be shared with the receiver.

Distortion Methods: The method referred to as matrix encoding needs the sender and recipient to agree in advance on a parity check matrix H. The cover medium is processed to extract an order of symbols ѵ, which is changed into s to embed the message m, s is sometimes called the stegodata, and alterations on s are translated on the cover-medium to obtain the stego-medium. The image is blurred before hiding the message copy using special point spread function and arbitrarily generated key. Successive LSB embedding in the R plane is done in this project. The quantity of rows and columns of the message image is encrypted in the first row of the cover copy. Before inserting, the original message image is blurred using the specific PSF. The parameters used for blurring with PSF are cast-off as keys during deblurring. The secret key values are directed through a secure channel (Tunneling). The secret image is enhanced using the two keys and a third key, which is arbitrarily generated and depends on the content of the hiding message.

Steganography hides the covert message but not the detail that two parties are communicating with each other. The steganography process usually involves placing a hidden communication in some transport medium, called the carrier. The secret message is entrenched in the carrier to form the steganography standard. The use of a steganography key may be working for encryption of the hidden message and/or for randomization in the steganography system.

Some success stories of information systems integration during merger and acquisition

1. Introduction

The evolution of the merger and acquisition is interesting to know over the last 100 years. Economists and historians primarily refer to 6 waves in the mergers and acquisitions activities.

These 6 waves are as follows :

• First Wave (late 1800’s): Horizontal groupings and consolidations of several industries.
• Second Wave (early 1900’s): Mainly horizontal pacts, but also many vertical pacts.
• Third Wave (mid 1900’s): The conglomerate era involving acquisition of companies in different industries.
• Fourth Wave (late 1900’s): The period of corporate raider, financed by junk bonds.
• Fifth Wave (early 2000’s): larger mega mergers.
• Sixth Wave (till date): More strategic mergers designed to complement company strategy. Focus on post-merger integration.

2. Factors of Successful Integration

Following are the key points of integration process:

2.1. Integration Planning: Business and IT Strategy Alignment

IT has a major impact on the complexity, cost, and time required to complete merger and acquisition planning and execution. Companies, especially software development companies, must keep a check on the complexity, cost and time.

Accenture research has found that those companies that involved IT in the pre-deal planning for the M&A not only did better in term of financial results, but also reported the overall merger integration as a success.

2.2. Integration Planning: Perform an IT due diligence

An IT due diligence should be performed before the deal is signed. Due diligence is an investigation or audit of a potential investment. IT due-diligence should be thorough.

J.P. Morgan Chase, Procter & Gamble confirmed the importance of IT due diligence.

2.3. Speed of Integration

Speed of integration is always mentioned as one of key successful factors of the M&A. The variability of the IT system can make the compliance effort very costly. Companies have to act quickly to identify the compliance list to address the same as fast as they can.

Software development companies can always adopt this success factor i.e., speed of integration, as they already have expertise about software and systems.

2.4. Effective Communication

The Culture issue has been a common concern in mergers and acquisitions integration. But if IT cultural issues are addressed properly, the success of the integration can be greatly boosted.

KPMG's surveys (KPMG 1999, KPMG 2001) found that 26% of companies had better-than-average success if they focused on resolving cultural issues and 13% more likely than average to have a successful deal when they gave priority to communications.

2.5. Application Selection

Swift and comprehensive integration of IT systems greatly enhances the chances of overall merger and acquisition success. The selection of applications is not based on individual applications, but on a group of similar applications, which is known as an application cluster.

2.6. Organization and HR: IT Organizational Fit

The IT integration of M&A includes the following components:
1. Integration of Information System that supports business units
2. Integration of IT organization itself

The success of the M&A depends on the above mentioned factors. Adopting one or more of the factors will let the organization realize the M&A success rapidly.

3. The Cisco Case Study

Mergers and acquisitions expert Cisco Systems, that has acquired more than 125 firms in the past 15 years, takes culture into consideration with acquiring smaller firms. They evaluate the culture of the target, making sure there is some chemistry between Cisco and the target.

A prime example of Cisco’s philosophy in action is their acquisition of networking star Linksys in 2004. While Cisco engineers and manufactures configurable products for the enterprise, Linksys outsourced many of its functions and sold its products through retail channels to consumers. Cisco being a Business-focused firm differed from Linksys’s culture that was consumer-focused.

Cisco staff worked with Linksys employees to determine those areas in which Cisco would more fully integrate with Linksys, as well as those areas that would remain distinct and separate, a process called “selective integration.”

Ultimately, they found little commonality in application needs but were able to integrate fully in many other areas, such as sharing data-center space, productivity software, and HR functions.

Sometimes, Cisco acquires companies with different business models. This way they learn in an area where they don’t have a history of operating.

This is how Cisco leverages advantages of other companies and also lets other companies take benefit of its uniqueness of its operations and business model.

Cisco has also acquired software development companies in India. Pawaa Software, a Bengaluru based company, is one of the Indian company that Cisco has acquired.

4. Conclusion

The complete article can be concluded by dotting down the factors that each company should keep in mind at the time of their merger or acquisition. They are:

1. Early involvement of IT
2. Alignment of IT strategy with business strategy of the company, which includes the notion that business strategy, determines the integration approach
3. Know what you are buying. Conduct due diligence before the merger is closed
4. Detail planning of the integration
5. Effective communication to all the stakeholders (including its employees)
6. Perform fast integration where it matters and is feasible
7. Effective employment of application selection so as to reduce IT integration complexity
8. IT organization fit is crucial

5. Reference

http://www.tgcpinc.com/SiteData/doc/MergersAcquisitions-MBrenner-071409/976ceba14c4fae75a4bbcb514bb34762/MergersAcquisitions-MBrenner-071409.pdf
http://www.cio.com/article/2440630/mergers-acquisitions/success-factors-for-integrating-it-systems-after-a-merger.html
https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/35101/71356376-MIT.pdf?sequence=2
http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/power/businessstrategy/migration/mergers_acquisitions/?page=1
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/lawson/four-lessons-for-it-integration-after-a-merger-and-acquisition/?cs=34380

Getting Insights on IOT : Internet Of Things

Introduction

The Internet of Things can transform almost every industry to change the way one lives and works. Organizations across industries face challenges to form infrastructures that meet the changing requirements of data management, scalability, regulations, and are highly safe and practical. Software development companies are taking special initiatives to adopt IOT platform.

IOT tailors solutions for various industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, travel, utilities, and mining. It plays a very crucial role in development of Smart cities.

Internet of Things : IoT

(Microsoft, 2016) defines IoT as: The IoT, Internet of Things, starts with organization’s things, the things that matter utmost to their business. IoT is all about making the things and the ways the data comes together in new ways. Tap into data and uncover actionable intelligence. And modernize how to do the business. This is what Internet of Things is all about.

As per (WIPRO), following are the key differentiators that IoT platform offers :

• Pay As You Grow with innovative as well as flexible service models
• Experiment and Refine Your Strategy
• Reduce Your costs with the rich streamlining and optimization expertise
• Accelerated Time to Market using proven, ready to use tools
• Ability to support a wide variety of devices through multiple communication channels

Steps to start with your own IoT Solution

(HCL) summarizes the implementation if IoT for any organization in following few steps :

Connect and scale with efficiency

Connect any asset that’s important to your organization— with confidence – from robotics to various low-power devices, across any platform or operating system.

Easily scale from a few devices to a few million.

Analyze and act on untouched data

Capture alarms and alerts from all of your connected assets spread around the world. Identify issues before they become operational problems.

Take advantage of advanced analytics and machine learning to increase reliability and availability of your processes. Decrease costly outages and expensive repairs with prescriptive maintenance. And, take pre-emptive actions instead of understanding just the “what” and “why” behind a prediction.

Visualize what’s important

Create rich reports and dashboards to show anything from high level performance KPIs to the details of an individual asset. Customizing visualization so the right people have access to the metrics that matter to them, updated in real-time.

Accessing data and reports from any device, anywhere; and publish reports to your organization.

Integrate with your business processes

Automate formerly manual processes by integrating IoT data with your existing business systems such as CRM, ERP, and supply SCM.

For example, if a product goes down at a customer site, a service ticket will auto-generate in CRM, from which numerous courses of actions can be assigned, such as notifying technician to fix problems, diverting the product, or shipping a replacement for your customer.

Conclusion

While the subject of IoT is broad and incorporates many trends and new technology developments, Software development companies in India are keeping pace with the global market by adopting IoT platform. It becomes essential for organizations to cope with and also handle Big Data in a cost-effective way. IoT platform helps operator and enterprise customers to capture value from business. It also demands to create massive amount of devices, sensors and connections and on other hand it will create enormous business value.

Bibliography

HCL. (n.d.). Internet of Things (IoT) Platform. Retrieved 04 27, 2016, from IoT Works: http://www.hcltech.com/Internet-of-Things-IoT/

Microsoft. (2016). What is the Internet of Things. Retrieved 04 27, 2016, from Internet of Things: http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/server-cloud/internet-of-things/overview.aspx

WIPRO. (n.d.). WIPRO - Capabilities - Internet of Things. Retrieved 04 27, 2016, from Internet of Things: http://www.wipro.com/services/product-engineering/capabilities/internet-of-things/

ITIL Continual Service Improvement

ITIL Continual Service Improvement

The ITIL Continual Service Improvement process focuses on quality management. The continual improvement process intends to continually improving the efficiency of IT processes and IT services, carried out in custom software development companies, in an effective way , as per the standard adopted of continual improvement adopted in ISO 20000

The objective of the ITIL Continual Service Improvement includes :

• To review and analyze improvement opportunities in each phase of the continuous lifecycle
• To review and analyze results of the Service Level achievement
• To improve cost of delivering IT services effectively without sacrificing the satisfaction of  customer
• To identify and implement individual activities to improve the quality of IT services
• To ensures that the appropriate quality management processes and methods are used to support the activities carried out for the continual improvement in a software development organization.

The activities of ITIL Continual Service Improvement includes :

• Reviewing that the ITSM processes achieve the desired and qualitative results
• Periodically demonstrate areas of improvement
• Conducting internal audits verifying employees and process compliance
• Reviewing existing deliverables for relevance
• Conducting external and internal service to identify CSI opportunities
• Review management information and trend to ensure services are meeting the SLAs.
• Periodically proposing recommendations for improvement opportunities
• Periodically conducting customer satisfaction surveys
• Conducting service reviews i.e both internal as well as external ,to identify CSI opportunities

There are 7 steps followed in the ITIL Continual Service Improvement process.

They are as follows :

• To define what data you should measure
• To define what data you can measure
• To gather the relevant data need for the continuous improvement
• To process and filter the appropriate data
• Analyze the data by choosing the relevant methods
• To present/assess the data
• To implement corrective actions for getting the quality information and improved data

The processes of ITIL Continual Service Improvement  includes :

• Service Review
• Process Evaluation
• Definition of CSI Initiatives
• Monitoring of CSI Initiatives

Service Review

The objective of service review includes :

• To review business and IT services and infrastructure services on a regular basis.
• To improve the quality of the IT services where necessary
• To identify more efficient and economical ways of providing IT service where possible.

Process Evaluation

The objective of Process Evaluation includes :

• To evaluate processes on a regular basis.
• To identify those areas where the targeted process metrics are not reached,
• Holding regular benchmarking, audits, maturity assessments and reviews.

Definition of CSI Initiatives

The objective of Definition of CSI Initiatives includes :

• To define specific initiatives which focuses on improving services and processes, based on the results of service reviews and process evaluations.

Monitoring of CSI Initiatives

The objective of Monitoring of CSI Initiatives includes :

• To verify and monitor improvement initiatives whether they are proceeding according to plan or not
• To introduce and take corrective measures where necessary during the lifecycle.

TARGET AUDIENCE

ITIL Continual Service Improvement is relevant to organizations involved in the development, delivery or support of services, including:

• Various Service providers – Internal providers and External providers
• Software development Organizations that target to improve services through the effective application of service management to improve their service quality
• Software development Organizations that require a consistent managed approach across all service providers in a supply chain or value network
• Software development Organizations that are going out to tender for their services.

Conclusion :

Thus, the IT software development companies should use and implement the Continuous Service Improvement to improve and monitor IT service as a part of ITIL processes for increasing quality of the services and thereby increasing the value plus customer satisfaction.

References:

• http://wiki.en.it-processmaps.com/index.php/ITIL_CSI_-_Continual_Service_Improvement

Determining factors affecting Cloud Computing as Outsourcing

Cloud computing (CC) is an emerging usage of IT outsourcing (ITO) that needs software companies in India to fine-tune their sourcing procedures. Although software companies in India have recognized an extensive knowledge based on the basis that drive sourcing choices from numerous theoretical standpoints. The mainstream of cloud-sourcing decisions concentrates on technological aspects. The most determinant factors of sourcing decisions in the ITO context persist valid for the CC context. Stillthe findings for some factors (i.e. asset specificity, client firm IT abilities, institutional influences, client firm size and uncertainty) are indecisive for the ITO and CC contexts. 

Cloud computing (CC) influences how organizations cope and manages their IT landscape, challenges outdated IT governance approaches, and requires organizations to fine-tune their sourcing processes. With cloud computing, organizations can achieve on-demand network access to a common pool of managed and scalable IT resources, such as storage, applications and servers. Since IT sourcing decisions require substantial economic and strategic risks, Software outsourcing companies in India should have broad judgment and insight regarding organizational structures, organization processes, inter dependencies and routines to thoroughly comprehend decision substitutes and the set of required structural selections.

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Following are the factors that software companies in India, can consider for organizations willing to adopt cloud computing.

Asset characteristics

Asset specificity is used in reference to three key categories of assets: physical asset specificity(similarly referred to as technical specificity), site specificity and human asset specificity.

The increased network reliance of cloud computing increases the risks that disturb site specificity, such as the risk of service breakdowns because of probable network outages, which may result in a momentary loss of data accessibility. Therefore, site specificity requires precise consideration for assets that are required on a day-to-day basis (e.g. a customer relationship management system – CRM System). 

Technical specificity may however generate transaction charges when applications are run remotely but these increased transaction costs do not surpass cost savings rising from economies of scale. Thus, these cost savings may humbly outweigh issues related to technical specificity. Furthermore, the impact of technical specificity is expected to vary with organization size and other parameters. However, SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions are restricted in terms of their customizability, which limits the exclusivity of assets that are outsourced via cloud computing. So assets with low technical specificity might be more appropriate for SaaS-based sourcing and applications. High technically specific assets that surpass the configuration and customization limits of SaaS solutions may nevertheless be contenders for outsourcing the underlying infrastructure or PaaS solutions.

Human asset specificity yields inconsistent results.

Client firm characteristics

The impact of a client firm’s internal IT capabilities on sourcing decisions vary between the cloud computing (inconsistent influence) and ITO (consistent negative influence) contexts. Partial support for internal information technology capabilities is observed because there is ‘a plentiful supply of IT personnel with suitable technical expertise’; so, gaps in internal IT capabilities can be effortlessly filled. Organizations started considering to outsource their IT activities because of a deficiency of trained and skilled IT personnel to software outsourcing companies in India, whereas companies believe for internal IT capabilities as a criterion for integrating cloud services into an organization’s IT landscape.A deficiency of internal IT capabilities can be addressed either by acquisitioning competencies (e.g., hiring experts, training existing personnel) or by giving IT tasks to external providers (i.e., outsourcing). Thus, the aspiration to hire IT personnel may be an indication of a lack of IT capabilities.

Environmental characteristics

Uncertainty denotes the degree of complexity, unpredictability and imperfect information that is natural to a transaction. Two types of uncertainty persist: behavioural uncertainty and environmental uncertainty. 

Environmental uncertainty requires further consideration as a determinant of cloud-sourcing decisions, and we specifically differentiate between demand uncertainty as a driving factor and product uncertainty as an inhibiting factor.

The contractual mode of cloud services with short-term contracts permits clients to switch between providers for standardized, commodity-type services at a little cost, thus increasing the client’s inclination to switch vendors if the client is not pleased with the outsourcing arrangement. Still, low-cost switching relates only to standardized services (e.g., low technical specificity) with numerous available provider options. Highly specialized services, which are challenging to replace and lack open interfaces, might be tougher to source via CC. So, the nature of asset and the interference of other factors may play a part in the impact of behavioural uncertainty on sourcing decisions.

Determinant factors of cloud-sourcing decisions assist as a basis for practitioner-oriented guidelines and best practices about how to select and offer cloud services. Also, software companies in India may use the set of determinant factors to lead their procurement procedures and to identify challenges that may stand up during the adoption, acquisition, or integration of cloud services.

Choosing between SaaS and On-Premise for a Software Outsourcing Company in India

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software delivery model for software outsourcing companies, in which vendors host the applications centrally and charge on a levered basis. These applications are available to the users via Internet. This software delivery model is in line with terms like ‘On-demand’, ‘Off-premises’ and ‘Application Service Provider (ASP)’. E.g. Microsoft Office 365

On-Premise is a software delivery model in which a client, installs and works on the software in-house. Organization’s own resources are used and it needs to obtain a software license for using the software for each server. On-premise software is commonly referred as ‘ShrinkWrap’ and ‘Software as a Product’.

The need for web servers is one of the main reasons for the companies for migrating from On-premise to SaaS.

The decision of going with SaaS or staying with On-premise, involves multiple steps:

• Determine whether there are any SaaS providers for the software you need and are they trustworthy.
• Some of the important concerns while making this decision are Cost (this being the primary one), Security, Customization, Control, Compliance and Infrastructure.
• Get an understanding of business needs of outsourcing companies and baseline them.
• Obtain a free trial from both vendors (On-Premise vendors and SaaS vendors) and then analyze and evaluate.
• Suitability check of applications should be performed for SaaS or On-Premise.
• Obtain the knowledge of vendor relationship difference between SaaS and On-Premise.
• With SaaS vendors, the benefits of multitenancy are realized. Multitenancy is allowing multiple users to share a single application instance at the same time retaining their own separate information.

The comparison of On-premise and SaaS is done to make the decision easy:

Parameters	SaaS	On-Premise
Implementation	Faster to implement because convenient and already built platform is available.	Takes longer duration to get implemented as personnel and equipment are needed to set up an environment.
Infrastructure	No purchase of software or hardware needed.	Extra hardware and software need to be purchased.
Customization	Customization is difficult as multitenancy is given the focus.	Highly flexible for customization.
Support & Maintenance	Very low dependency for maintaining the application. Control is in the hands of vendor.	Your responsibility to maintain the application. Control is in your hands and ownership is yours.
Mobile Access	Accessible through browser on mobile devices.	Minimal access through mobile devices.
Upgrade Cycles	Upgrades are iterative with very less involvement of IT.	Upgrade is your responsibility which is costly and takes a lot of productive time.
Cost	Pay per use & entry costs are low. High annual maintenance. Internal resources required are less.	No flexible pricing option and entry high costs are high. Low annual maintenance comparatively. Lot of internal resources such as tangible hardware assets are needed.
Security	Security risks are higher as applications are accessed via Internet. Server and Network security experts are needed.	Lower security risks as applications are accessed in-house. No specific security experts needed.
Validation for regulatory compliance	Vendor does the baseline review.	Validation is your responsibility. Enforcing these requirements is comparatively easy as control is in your hand.
Integration	Complex as it’s difficult to integrate with existing as well as new processes.	Simpler to integrate with existing and new processes.
Scalability	Scale up and scale down of solutions is easier.	Difficult to scale solutions easily, as it requires a lot of effort and commitment.
Redundancy	Redundancy is a bigger concern as to what happens if the solution provider fails.	As the data lies in-house it’s easier to store backup of the data and so redundancy is a lesser concern.
Availability	Resolution of cloud outage makes you dependent on vendor.	Outages resolution is your responsibility.

After comparing the two options based on these parameters, cost benefit analysis is performed for each of the vendors offering the solutions. The results of the analysis are compared and evaluated to make the right decision for a software outsourcing company.

To choose the deployment model that will suit the outsourcing company’s business, depends on factors including:

• Resource’s availability during each phase of the project.
• Data’s criticality.
• Size & culture of the organization.
• Organization’s requirements for integration.
• Control over customized environments.
• Annual Budget and Investment constraints.
• Regulatory commitments.

Conclusion: Thus a software outsourcing company in India should choose the option that suits the best, after analyzing and comparing the insights derived from this comparison.

Business – IT Strategic alignment

Introduction

(Wikipedia t. f.) defines Business-IT alignment as a dynamic state in which a business organization is able to utilize information technology (IT) effectively to achieve business objectives - typically improved financial performance or marketplace competitiveness. Software development companies are implementing IT strategies at a rapid pace that aligns with their business model which brings in elevation in overall performance of the companies.

(Rouse, What is business-IT alignment?, 2006) enlightens the role of executives in Business – IT alignment. Business-IT alignment involves optimizing communication between executives who take the business decisions and IT managers who oversee the technical operations. The employment of flexible business plans and IT architectures, as well as effective cost allocation, are critical components of any business-IT alignment implementation. Technical department managers can formulate and submit proposals that can be designed to ensure the optimum return on investment (ROI). Business executives can attend IT department meetings and seminars to elevate their understanding of the technical capabilities and limitations of the enterprise.

Purpose of Business – IT Alignment

It is important for all the software development companies in India to understand the purpose of Business – IT alignment. The purpose of Business – IT Alignment is to optimize the value that IT contributes to the enterprise. As such, in order to successfully design a strategic IT roadmap, it is important to start here. It is said that an organization has successfully aligned IT strategy to business strategy when there is:

• A shared understanding of how IT applications, services and technologies will contribute to business objectives – today and in the future.
• A shared focus on where to consume scarce resources, time and money; the trade-offs the enterprise is prepared to make.
• A credible working relation between the IT organization and the rest of the business evidenced by reliable daily operations, reactive problem management and predictable, innovative solution delivery.

Steps to achieve  Business – IT Alignment

(Group) gives four major steps to achieve Business – IT Alignment is achieved :

• Set Conditions to Achieve Alignment
• Scan for Hypothetical Enabling Technologies
• Determine IT Value Imperatives
• Develop IT Vision and Mission

Advantages of implementing Business – IT Alignment 

When the Business – IT Alignment program is completed successfully, following are the advantages that the organizations will get:

• Support from key executives to participate in developing the IT Strategy.
• A better understanding of how emerging technologies, applications and trends can or will impact your enterprise and your IT organization.
• A clear expectation of how IT will contribute to reaching the company’s business goals and objectives.
• A well-defined articulation of IT’s role in, and value to, the enterprise for the strategic horizon.

Issues in absence of Business – IT alignment 

Following are concerns that organizations often face when they lack Business – IT alignment :

• IT driven projects do not meet deadlines and budget constraints
• IT investment do not pay-off
• Ambiguity whether IT strategy and principles are appropriate
• Unclear outsourcing strategy
• Insufficient implementation of security controls
• Financial reports not available in time and accurate manner
• Optimization of IT budget utilization not possible

Conclusion

While the area of IT strategy is broad and incorporates many trends and new technology developments, Software development companies in India are keeping pace with the global market by adopting IT Strategy aligning to individual business model. Business-IT alignment is the correspondence between the business objectives and the Information Technology requirements of an enterprise. These two factors often seem to contradict, but many technical and economic experts agree that alignment between them, maintained over time, is crucial to the success of an enterprise.

Bibliography

• Group, I.-R. (n.d.). OptimizeIT | Info-Tech Research Group . Retrieved 05 04, 2016, from Business - IT Strategic Alignment: https://www.infotech.com/optimizeit/business-it-strategic-alignment
• Rouse, M. (2006, 05). What is business-IT alignment? Retrieved 05 04, 2016, from business-IT alignment: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/business-IT-alignment
• Wikipedia, t. f. (n.d.). Business-IT alignment. Retrieved 05 04, 2016, from Business-IT alignment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business-IT_alignmentxof IT Strategy: http://panorama-consulting.com/the-importance-of-it-strategy/

ITIL Continual Service Improvement

ITIL Continual Service Improvement

The ITIL Continual Service Improvement process focuses on quality management. The continual improvement process intends to continually improving the efficiency of IT processes and IT services, carried out in custom software development companies, in an effective way , as per the standard adopted of continual improvement adopted in ISO 20000

The objective of the ITIL Continual Service Improvement includes :

• To review and analyze improvement opportunities in each phase of the continuous lifecycle
• To review and analyze results of the Service Level achievement
• To improve cost of delivering IT services effectively without sacrificing the satisfaction of customer
• To identify and implement individual activities to improve the quality of IT services
• To ensures that the appropriate quality management processes and methods are used to support the activities carried out for the continual improvement in a software development organization.

The activities of ITIL Continual Service Improvement includes :

• Reviewing that the ITSM processes achieve the desired and qualitative results
• Periodically demonstrate areas of improvement 
• Conducting internal audits verifying employees and process compliance
• Reviewing existing deliverables for relevance
• Conducting external and internal service to identify CSI opportunities
• Review management information and trend to ensure services are meeting the SLAs.
• Periodically proposing recommendations for improvement opportunities
• Periodically conducting customer satisfaction surveys
• Conducting service reviews i.e both internal as well as external ,to identify CSI opportunities

There are 7 steps followed in the ITIL Continual Service Improvement process.

They are as follows :

• To define what data you should measure
• To define what data you can measure
• To gather the relevant data need for the continuous improvement
• To process and filter the appropriate data
• Analyze the data by choosing the relevant methods
• To present/assess the data
• To implement corrective actions for getting the quality information and improved data

The processes of ITIL Continual Service Improvement  includes :

• Service Review
• Process Evaluation
• Definition of CSI Initiatives
• Monitoring of CSI Initiatives

Service Review

The objective of service review includes :

• To review business and IT services and infrastructure services on a regular basis.
• To improve the quality of the IT services where necessary
• To identify more efficient and economical ways of providing IT service where possible.

Process Evaluation

The objective of Process Evaluation includes :

• To evaluate processes on a regular basis. 
• To identify those areas where the targeted process metrics are not reached, 
• Holding regular benchmarking, audits, maturity assessments and reviews.

Definition of CSI Initiatives

The objective of Definition of CSI Initiatives includes :

• To define specific initiatives which focuses on improving services and processes, based on the results of service reviews and process evaluations.

Monitoring of CSI Initiatives

The objective of Monitoring of CSI Initiatives includes :

• To verify and monitor improvement initiatives whether they are proceeding according to plan or not
• To introduce and take corrective measures where necessary during the lifecycle.

TARGET AUDIENCE

ITIL Continual Service Improvement is relevant to organizations involved in the development, delivery or support of services, including:

• Various Service providers – Internal providers and External providers
• Software development Organizations that target to improve services through the effective application of service management to improve their service quality
• Software development Organizations that require a consistent managed approach across all service providers in a supply chain or value network
• Software development Organizations that are going out to tender for their services.

Conclusion :

Thus, the IT software development companies should use and implement the Continuous Service Improvement to improve and monitor IT service as a part of ITIL processes for increasing quality of the services and thereby increasing the value plus customer satisfaction.

References:

• http://wiki.en.it-processmaps.com/index.php/ITIL_CSI_-_Continual_Service_Improvement

Firewall Design: Strengths & Weakness

Introduction

Firewalls may be software based or, more commonly, purpose-built appliances. Sometimes the firewalling functions are actually provided by a collection of several different devices. The specific features of the firewall platform and the design of the network where the firewall lives are key components of securing a network. It is important for software application development companies to have a proper placement of firewall. To be effective, firewalls must be placed in the right locations on the network, and configured effectively. Best practices include:

• All communications must pass through the firewall. The effectiveness of the firewall is greatly reduced if an alternative network routing path is available; unauthorized traffic can be sent through a different network path, bypassing the control of the firewall. Think of the firewall in terms of a lock on your front door. It can be the best lock in the world, but if the back door is unlocked, intruders don’t have to break the lock on the front door—they can go around it. The door lock is relied upon to prevent unauthorized access through the door, and a firewall is similarly relied upon to prevent access to your network. 
• The firewall permits only traffic that is authorized. If the firewall cannot be relied upon to differentiate between authorized and unauthorized traffic, or if it is configured to permit dangerous or unneeded communications, its usefulness is also diminished. 
• In a failure or overload situation, a firewall must always fail into a “Deny” or closed state, under the principle that it is better to interrupt communications than to leave systems unprotected. 
• The firewall must be designed and configured to withstand attacks upon itself. Because the firewall is relied upon to stop attacks, and nothing else is deployed to protect the firewall itself against such attacks, it must be hardened and capable of withstanding attacks directly upon itself.

Firewall Strengths and Weaknesses

A firewall is just one component of an overall security architecture. Its strengths and weaknesses should be taken into consideration when designing network security at various software application development companies in India. 

Firewall Strengths 

Consider the following firewall strengths when designing network security:

• Firewalls are excellent at enforcing security policies. They should be configured to restrict communications to what management has determined and agreed with the business to be acceptable. 
• Firewalls are used to restrict access to specific services. 
• Firewalls are transparent on the network—no software is needed on end-user workstations. 
• Firewalls can provide auditing. Given plenty of disk space or remote logging capabilities, they can log interesting traffic that passes through them. 
• Firewalls can alert appropriate people of specified events.

Firewall Weaknesses 

You must also consider the following firewall weaknesses when designing network security:

• Firewalls are only as effective as the rules they are configured to enforce. An overly permissive rule set will diminish the effectiveness of the firewall. 
• Firewalls cannot stop social engineering attacks or an authorized user intentionally using their access for malicious purposes. 
• Firewalls cannot enforce security policies that are absent or undefined. 
• Firewalls cannot stop attacks if the traffic does not pass through them.

Firewall Placement 

A firewall is usually located at the network perimeter, directly between the network and any external connections. However, additional firewall systems can be located inside the network perimeter to provide more specific protection to particular hosts with higher security requirements. 

Firewall Configuration 

When building a rule set on a firewall, consider the following practices:

• Build rules from most to least specific. Most firewalls process their rule sets from top to bottom and stop processing once a match is made. Putting more specific rules on top prevents a general rule from hiding a specific rule further down the rule set. 
• Place the most active rules near the top of the rule set. Screening packets is a processor-intensive operation, and as mentioned earlier, a firewall will stop processing the packet after matching it to a rule. Placing your popular rules first or second, instead of 30th or 31st, will save the processor from going through over 30 rules for every packet. In situations where millions of packets are being processed and rule sets can be thousands of entries in length, CPU savings could be considerable. 
• Configure all firewalls to drop “Impossible” or “Unroutable” packets from the Internet such as those from an outside interface with source addresses matching the internal network, RFC 1918 “private” IP addresses, and broadcast packets. None of these would be expected from the Internet, so if they are seen, they represent unwanted traffic such as that produced by attackers. The software development companies must keep a check on such unwanted traffic produced by attackers.

Author Signature:  Sanika Taori