The ability to quickly adapt to new challenges in the face of a pandemic constraints has become a prerequisite for resilience for many businesses. In this context, the advantages of new technological solutions have been highlighted: they not only allow a part of the activity to be transferred to the digital space, but also enable it to be done much faster than creating an IT as a complete system that solves all the problems.
Truth be told, there is another condition — the involvement of the whole organization is necessary, so experts advise to change not only technologies, but also approaches to their implementation.
“New technological solutions allow you to quickly install the desired changes. Organizations that follow them win twice — on the one hand they can change quickly, on the other hand they increase the resilience of their activities in a rapidly changing environment,” – says Artūras Milašauskas, Sales Director of IT infrastructure services company Novian Technologies.
He adds that this is particularly true for large organizations with a sufficiently complex IT and various digital needs.
Versatile solution
The IT infrastructure and software services group Novian, together with its partners, offers a solution that changes this approach today, and the new way of developing technological solutions is available both for those with an older IT and for those who create new businesses.
The Novian solution includes both the technological part of the container method and the software development that is carried out through microservices. A third important component is also offered – the exercises that help the organization to digitalize, carried out together with the world’s leading provider of open source solutions RedHat.
“In addition, the specialists of the “Novian” group know both the “old” and the latest IT development techniques, which makes it possible to find a flexible solution for organizations of various sizes and needs,” says A. Milašauskas.
Shortened the time of IT projects at times
From 6-9 months to 2-3 weeks. This has reduced the time that Deutsche Bank devotes to the application installation time from concept approval to production. From 3-4 months to 2-3 weeks — the launch time of IT products was shortened that much for the Polish Agency for Agricultural Restructuring and Modernization.
“Sounds impressive and competitive. Especially in today’s market, where the pandemic situation requires ever-faster solutions, and the speed of creating an IT solution becomes a prerequisite for resilience of business or activity,” says A. Milašauskas.
According to him, these projects implemented and presented by RedHat are united by the fact that container and microservices solutions have been used for them.
Problems are solved “piece-by-piece”
For a long time, when deploying IT projects, most organizations followed the classic Waterfall method. Completed systems have been developed to solve all the problems of the organization, and sometimes even having excess functionality, based on the idea of “but what if we will need this?”.
“This choice was often due to the fact that organizations usually want a fixed spending budget with a list of solutions to all existing and anticipated problems. In the current context of IT development, they stop themselves: while changes are being implemented, both technology and operational needs change,” says A. Milašauskas. Another loophole in this method is the extremely expensive correction of errors, because the whole system needs to be repaired in principle.
In order to avoid these deficiencies, organizations have increasingly used the Agile method. It allowed to solve the problem in parts, thereby increasing the production speed and providing the possibility to repair individual parts without touching the entire system. Another step towards faster development of IT projects was the DevOps method, which aims to create operational functionality that “adheres” to an existing IT system.
The new principle allows you to quickly fix errors
“The new principle allows you to look for solutions more efficiently, thus reducing the risk of investment: if we make a mistake, we will quickly notice the error and we will be able to make adjustments immediately. Organizations and business environments are changing very quickly, which is particularly well seen during the pandemic.
It is important to understand that there are no perfect systems. Today we need to be able to react quickly, improve them and have the technologies and organizational skills that allow this. By engaging customers, especially managers, in the improvement of IT systems, we can turn digital transformation solutions into a great advantage for the organization. This applies to both business and public organizations,” says the Sales Director.
Develops innovation implementation capabilities
According to A. Milašauskas, most of the success of digital transformation is determined not by technology, but by the abilities of the organization itself. Most importantly, according to him, one should not be afraid to make mistakes and, having done a small part of the work, to test it.
It is also recommended to develop the digital transformation and innovation capacities of the organization. “IT should become an integral part of the organization, integrated into its activities and continuous improvement of employee skills. Leadership is also a very important part: their daily engagement is an essential condition for successful digital transformation,” notes A. Milašauskas.
“Organizations take less risk by operating step by step, they can invest more easily, and their investments are much safer. For example, the largest systems used in banks or energy companies, state institutions are made as a monolithic organism, and the possibilities for their correction are very limited. And, according to the modern principle, if necessary, the wrong element can be replaced without destroying the rest of the system,” he explains.
Organization engagement is a key factor for success
According to the research carried out by the Lithuanian National Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA) last summer*, 25 percent of Lithuanian companies implemented innovation development processes, and even a smaller part invested in world-class innovations and improved business models. However, digital transformation is an essential opportunity for organizations to increase their competitive advantage.
“For transformation to succeed, we need a unified understanding of technology within the organization itself, across all links. It is important to familiarize everyone with their benefits and scope of application, thereby reducing resistance to innovation and improving their applicability. The more often we innovate in small projects, the less we are afraid to make mistakes and the better we will succeed”, — notes A. Milašauskas.
Novian solution for such tasks is triple: we have a team of software developers who can create with the use of new methods, as well as a team that oversees the infrastructure or the technological part to ensure successful daily operation. In addition, an experienced partner in this field is involved in the project, who shares his experience.
It is not easy to connect IT developers and supervisors, but in this way we can create valuable solutions for our clients,” notes A. Milašauskas. He adds that after acquiring the necessary knowledge, the organization can then take care of its own technological needs.
* The MITA study was part of the implemented Interreg BSR program project Smart Up BSR, with a total of 510 companies interviewed in the country.
Source: project in vz.lt.
