Posts Tagged ‘End Users’

Bespoke software development, also referred to as custom software development is the process of creating software for a specific customer, organization or need that cannot easily be fulfilled by an off the shelf product.

Such a software produces something entirely unique that is aligned with the end users requirements. It is not often though that bespoke software is commissioned. One piece of bespoke software is suited to the business it is developed for, other businesses may not find such value if they used the product directly, however with modifications other businesses could also benefit from a piece of such software product.

A number of things need to be taken in to account when considering bespoke software development. What purpose do you want it to serve? Is it for manufacturing or processing? Is the manufacturing process complex or is the processing system complicated. A number of agencies today develop bespoke software and have made them in the area of processing orders, data, manufacturing, plates, badges and much more.

To give you a run through, bespoke software goes through these steps. A company, person or group in need of software development contacts an agency or organization and discusses the initial details and requirements needed. A specific detailed plan of requirements is laid out based on the meeting and then working of the software i.e. its architecture, is designed.

Before coding begins both parties, the company and agency, work out any final details regarding cost and functionality. When these are finalized the design goes in to work in progress with developers.

Upon the software project being completed it is handed over for a wide range of testing. Once tested, it is considered final and developed. Corporate organizations as well as government organizations both make use of a bespoke software development model for purposes like inventory management, project management, and websites.

Not just big corporations take advantage of custom software development. Smaller companies and organizations are beginning to see the gains that can be made to profitability and efficiency with even a small piece of software to automate tasks and business control.

A software project relies highly on understanding the clients’ requirements and delivering software to meet them. An effective software development project can be a excellent value for money with a relatively low return on investment.

Managers should be aware of the benefits and talk to developers to understand how they can use bespoke software development to their businesses advantage. Good custom software can help a businesses get a competitive edge over its market.

Kaifu Computing help companies gain a competitive advantage by applying their wide ranging knowledge of bespoke software development and IT. Visit our website at www.Kaifu.co.uk to talk to one of our fantastic advisers today. The advice is free and we promise a friendly service aimed at meeting, and exceeding, your needs.

Author: Mohit S Jain
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Smiling shark

As technology budgets continue to remain stagnant (IDC expects only a 2.6 percent increase in spending this year), companies need to find – and eliminate – the hidden software costs that can drain IT funds.

What are some of the best ways to reduce hidden software costs?

Eliminate Extra Licenses

Gartner believes that US businesses overbuy licenses for 60 percent of their software portfolio. This creates hidden software costs in the form of excess vendor fees, as well as unnecessary property taxes. By using a software asset management system to better organize software licenses and IT contracts, companies can more precisely identify and discard extra licenses, saving as much as two percent of their annual operating budget.

Remove Unused Application Modules

During the software sales cycle, many vendors have a way of talking buyers into purchasing modules they don’t need, or bundles that include components that really aren’t necessary. Additionally, many companies continue to maintain software that, although valuable at one time, is no longer required by end users.

With an IT asset management solution in place, organizations can readily identify which applications are being used, and more importantly, which ones aren’t. By getting rid of those that are sitting idle, companies can avoid paying for maintenance – or even for the solution itself – by canceling in advance of an invoice. Gartner estimates that, by doing so, firms can reduce their annual technology operating budgets by as much as one percent.

Improve the Accuracy of Software Depreciation

Incorrect depreciation processes are a leading cause of hidden software costs. When organizations overvalue their software, they lose valuable tax write-offs. With a software asset management solution in place, businesses can improve the accuracy of software valuation, which – according to Gartner – can yield a one-time reduction of up to 10 to 20 percent of depreciable software assets.

Stop Unnecessary Software Acquisition

Companies often waste money on software they simply don’t need. A request comes in from an end user, and a new package is purchased – even though there is already a similar solution, perhaps with available licenses, in house. By using an automated tool to maintain an up-to-date inventory of all software assets, companies can stay fully aware of what they already own at all times. This can reduce hidden software costs by avoiding unnecessary software acquisitions.

Minimize “Renegade” Purchasing

By helping companies create, define, and enforce formal IT purchasing procedures, IT asset management solutions can put the proper controls in place to prevent unauthorized buyers from acquiring software without adherence to corporate policies and budgets.

SAManage is a leading provider of SaaS IT Management services, helping organizations effectively manage IT Assets such as computers, software, contract and software licenses, and detect potential IT risks or license compliance gaps. Delivered over the internet as an on-demand service, SAManage can be easily deployed across multiple locations within minutes and provide visibility into complex IT infrastructures to ensure optimized IT asset utilization.

Visit http://www.samanage.com and sign up for a free account today.

Author: Doron Gordon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Excise Tax

Software development life cycle (SDLC) is a process adopted and followed during the development of software. Also known as software life cycle and software process, there are quite a few stages for SDLC.

Requirements analysis

Being acquainted with the specific requirements of the desired software is the first important step. This requires skill and experience in software engineering so that the exact software is developed

Specification analysis

A software development process enters the specification stage once the deliverables are figured out. This is the stage when the software is properly described and written to understand. Specifications are most important for external interfaces that must remain stable.

Architectural analysis

Architecture refers to a conceptual representation of the software system. A well-defined architecture ensures that the software has all it needs to meet the requirements, and accommodate future requirements if any. The architecture step also addresses interfaces between the software system and other software products, as well as the underlying hardware or the host operating system.

Coding

The coding stage is a widely followed step in software development. Here the design is reduced to code for better understandability.

Testing

The coding stage is followed by the testing phase. This is the most important stage of any software development life cycle where extensive testing is done to ensure that coding done by different software developers work together in harmony.

An important part of software development is documentation. Many a times this step is overlooked, only to land up in problems whenever future maintenance and additions are a necessity. Meanwhile, many software projects are found to fail because of lack of training among end users. Ideally, training is an important part of the software development life cycle where end users have all their queries solved by the developers.

Earlier, the entire process of software development consisted only of a developer writing the code of software. However, today the scenario is quite big, complicated, and involves teams of architects, analysts, programmers, testers and users who work in tandem to create codes. This is the main reason why SDLC has become such important. In other words, without a well-defined development life cycle, software often have found to either fail, or lack performance.

Anirban Bhattacharya is a journalist in the field of offshore IT outsourcing as a whole and has written more than 250 articles for various websites. The ideas behind these articles have been drawn after performing comprehensive research on offshore IT outsourcing. To know more about offshore IT outsourcing and to have a look at other research based articles written by Anirban Bhattacharya please visit SynapseIndia offshore outsourcing services.

Author: Anirban Bhattacharya
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital Camera News

A software license agreement is either a manual or electronic memorandum of a contractual agreement between the producer of software and the end user, granting to the end user a software license to use the software legally. The user can be either a legal entity or an end user and sometimes the agreement is called the end user license agreement. This contract will clearly state all the parameters of the various permissions given to the end user. In case the software license agreement is between the software producer and a business or government undertaking some special clauses are included relevant to the agreement which are unique for the licensed software.

Very often, the agreement comes shrink wrapped with the product prior to installation of the software. If the user agrees to the terms and conditions, as stated in the agreement, he or she may continue with the installation and use of the software product or else he or she may refuse the product and thus not use the software. Mostly, users do not take the trouble of reading all the clauses of the software license agreement and just click on “Accept” and begin using the software anyway. This is because of the great depth of detail held within the license agreement. The enforceability of such agreements is open to debate, especially in the United States.

The copyright laws governing making backup copies of the purchased software allows the owner of the software to make copies for the intention of backup purposes only. However, there are various interpretations to this and a certain amount of ambiguity in this regard allows end users to make copies for purposes other than merely backing up their software.

The majority of the purchased software is liable to perform as per specifications but mostly the agreement disclaims any warranty and limits any damages to just the cost of the software. In addition, some agreements prohibit the use of any reverse engineering in order to protect their trade secrets.

In the world of computers, copyrighted software sold is of two types, namely open source/free software and closed source/proprietary software. It may be added that not all software is copyrighted. There is also one other type of software that is called “abandonware” software. This is a type of software that is not being sold or supported by its copyright holder. This means that though this software is still available in the market its support and development has ceased and that it is not actively being protected, represented or supported.

Using box wrapped software implies that once the wrapper has been opened the user is giving their assent to the software terms contained within. This type of agreement is termed as “click-wrap agreements”. The popularity of click-wrap agreements is increasing since it allows the user to read the terms and conditions prior to accepting them. It has also been found to be legally enforceable in the United States with courts generally upholding such contracts. A prime example of click-wrap agreements is Hotmail, the email program sold by MSN.

There is also a distinction between personal and commercial use of the software. Personal use implies that the software is being used in one’s personal capacity while commercial use implies that the software is being used to obtain commercial or monetary gain from use of the software.

Wade Anderson is a CPA and operates DigitalWorkTools.com

Click to view a Software License Agreement.

Author: Wade Anderson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera News