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Tips for efficient remote working jobs
December 14, 2022

5 Tips For Smart Remote Working In The Tech Industry 

Since the COVID-19 epidemic, working from home has become the norm for numerous individuals. As a result, many people are combining work and family obligations while working from home. Working remotely is difficult despite our best efforts, especially while juggling other obligations. It is especially challenging for a tech company, whose primary tasks require effort, time, and commitment. Therefore, when you are not in the comfort of a productive office, it can be extremely tough to remain focused and productive. 

Here are some suggestions to help you maximize your time working remotely while decreasing stress. 

1) Keep your space clear of clutter:

Desk clutter is both a waste of space and a source of distraction. A clean and ordered environment, on the other hand, considerably improves concentration. By organizing your job-related data and paperwork in a single, easily accessible location, you can optimize your work processes and save time and effort. You may keep your professional and personal stuff organized in separate drawers of a robust desk, and you can free up floor space by eliminating the wires that connect your multiple electronic gadgets by using Bluetooth devices. 

A clutter-free workstation enables the addition of peripherals such as a docking station to charge several devices simultaneously without the need for separate adapters, or an additional monitor, which is essential while working with backend advanced technology and heavy applications. 

2) Communicate with your coworkers:

The more you speak with your employees, the fewer misunderstandings and misinterpretations you will have. You may not always have business with your coworkers; but, when working from home, it is essential to stay in touch with them and provide them with regular updates to keep yourself and them on track. 

Additionally, you may miss socializing with your coworkers outside of your household. Communicating with your coworkers will enhance your confidence, and maintaining contact may be quite advantageous not only for productivity but also for maintaining strong working relationships. Collaboration with your team enables you to monitor the development of each project in real-time, exchange ideas, and foster an environment of open communication. 

3) Stay efficient with your time and take regular breaks:

Working from home, particularly in the field of technology, is similar to switching from radio to television. They both disseminate information, but in vastly distinct ways. A vital part of good time management when working from home is taking frequent breaks. Here are tactics that have proven effective for telecommuters: 

As a first step, reduce the length of online sessions and take a break before beginning the following project. If the meeting will run more than 45 minutes, a 5-10-minute break is ideal. Keep in mind the 52/17 rule. For maximum efficiency, a 52-minute work period followed by a 17-minute rest is optimal. Planning your workday in advance allows you to complete more tasks in less time and with less effort. Due to the long hours and monotonous nature of the work cycle, this strategy is most effective for software engineers, developers, and sound and videography professionals. 

4) Get yourself a nice computer workstation:

Because of the long-term consequences they may have on the body, home-based workers must utilize ergonomic equipment. A standing desk will allow you to adjust the height of your table, allowing you to maintain your monitor horizontal to your eyes and reducing back and neck pain. A comfortable office chair or desk chair with lumbar support and height-adjustable seat and armrests can help support your lower back and posture. It can significantly reduce the likelihood of back and neck injuries over time. 

Finally, an ergonomic keyboard can help reduce tension in the wrists and forearms. Search preferably for a mechanical keyboard with a height-adjustable stand so that it can accommodate your seating position for a comfortable typing experience. These are especially essential for employees working with bulk programming or coding.

5) Transform your workstation with your own aesthetics:

Decorations or splashes of colour have been demonstrated to calm the mind and make work more joyful as a means of relieving stress and tension during work hours. Desk plants, for instance, not only enhance air quality but are also aesthetically beautiful and effective air purifiers. In addition, having images of loved ones or inspirational words has been shown to reduce stress and improve overall health and fitness. 

In addition to being a useful workspace, a home office should represent the individual’s personality. There are a variety of techniques you can employ to remain motivated and satisfied while working remotely. At MBiz Software, our staff is located throughout Sri Lanka, and we have mastered the art of working from home. We thrive not just in an office setting, but also in the comfort of our own homes. 

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Outsource my IT department
November 29, 2022

8 Reasons Why You Should Be Outsourcing Your IT Department 

The IT division is crucial to the success of any company. IT experts are widely sought after because they possess both hard and soft talents, making them indispensable in any organization.  

The choice to leave Information Technology support in the hands of a third party, such as a Managed Service Provider (MSP), is a significant one that many organizations make to save time, money, and resources. IT outsourcing has gained popularity due to its ability to help businesses use cutting-edge technology, competitiveness, and operational features. It can be used in multiple fields, increasing its impact, and it has gained popularity due to the IT industry’s dramatic impact on businesses. Outsourcing IT is the most practical option and is also practical because it benefits many fields, especially technology. 

So, let us get into the reasons why you should outsource your IT department: 

1) Cost-effectiveness:

The majority of companies who outsource their IT experience this as their greatest gain. Many firms cannot afford to have an IT expert on staff, and when you outsource, you save on overhead costs and the hassle of employing suitable teams, which could be an added cost. You will also be able to save money on high-end services and products, such as cyber defence and hardware upgrades. IT outsourcing can be done per project if that’s all you require. If you outsource your IT services, you may expect to save money in addition to the other advantages. 

2) You can get access to a wealth of knowledge and experience:

When you outsource your IT, you not only have access to a wider pool of skilled workers that might potentially aid in the expansion of your company, but you pay a flat rate each month and have access to a team of specialists that can help you with all technological issues. An organization that is unaware of the specifics of its future IT needs will find this particularly helpful. It’s also a convenient method to get expert advice without spending much time searching for money. 

3) Improved cyber security:

Keeping private data safe is a top priority when running a business. As much as 70% of businesses are unprepared for cyberattacks, suggesting a deeper problem: maybe a lack of skill and competence in this area. Due to the continued importance of this problem, businesses are always on the lookout for security specialists and software engineers that can keep an eye on their possessions without breaking the bank. Many businesses that want to be more careful with their information have found that outsourcing provides them with the resources they need to do so successfully. 

4) Higher flexibility:

An outsourced crew is flexible enough to adapt to your business needs when filling IT gaps. You may be expanding swiftly or trying out novel business methods and finding the proper people to work in-house to fulfil the demands of the constant changes in software development might be challenging. With outsourced IT, however, you have the flexibility to shape your technology in any way you see fit. In addition, outsourcing may provide a more health-focused and happy work environment and a greater emphasis on the seamless integration of outsourced service providers with core teams. 

5) Helps you shift your attention elsewhere:

It’s tough to concentrate on work when you and your team are always dealing with IT issues and fighting against outdated technology. When you outsource your IT, you free up internal resources to focus on higher-value activities, such as increasing your return on investment. It is typical to have an outside IT firm handle everyday chores like responding to support calls and putting out fires while staff at the home office focus on longer-term goals like growing the network or establishing how IT might better serve the business. By contracting with an outside IT firm, you can stop worrying about your company’s IT infrastructure and instead focus on running your business. 

6) Use cutting-edge technology:

Changes in the IT industry and the availability of novel services and solutions are constant concerns. It may be difficult to keep up with the latest developments, products, and app developments and assess if they suit your firm. You can be confident outsourcing firms or individuals will have access to all of the latest breakthroughs and training on new solutions to advise you on the technology you should use for the success of your organization. 

7) Increased professionalism:

In-house IT employees are usually asked to multitask and be well-versed in various areas. As a result, they are generally adequate but rarely excellent at anything. In comparison, consider the IT support provided by a Managed Service Provider. You may rely on specialists who manage networks for a wide range of businesses and industries to secure your company’s smooth operation and the security of your data from hackers. 

8) Put a stop to your problems:

If you take a break/fix approach to customer care, you will almost certainly spend more money and effort on the problem than is necessary. When you realize a problem, employee productivity has already plummeted, and you probably have some costly and uncomfortable downtime. When you choose a third-party IT MSP, you can be assured that your systems are being monitored around the clock, assisting in the detection and resolution of problems before they have a negative impact on your organization.  

These are just a few of the many benefits of outsourcing your IT department to a professional managed services provider. We at MBiz Software are tuned to better adapt to the shifting landscape of our field by honing down on a limited subset of expertise, allowing us to gain a wide range of valuable skill sets. Working with multiple brands globally as their end-to-end IT MSP, MBiz Software works seamlessly to provide you with only the best digital solutions.  

At MBiz Software, we help businesses elevate their value through IT consultancy, custom software development, product design, IT outsourcing/managed services, enterprise application development, system integrations, and NOC (Network Operations Center) Management. Contact us now!  

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October 10, 2022

What Is The ‘final’ Keyword In Java & How Can You Use It?

There are more than fifty reserved words such as keywords and literals that cannot be used as identifiers in java. The ‘final’ keyword in java is a non-access modifier, which is used to control three very specific aspects of classes, methods, and variables. 

The ‘final’ Classes

When a final keyword is added before a class, it makes it a final class. A final class cannot be extended. And also, a final class cannot be abstract due to obvious reasons. In a case where the programmer tries to extend a final class, it will give a compile-time error.  

final class MyFinalClass {  
     //code inside class  
} 
public class MyClass extends MyFinalClass {  
    void test() {  
        System.out.println("My Method");  
    }  
     public static void main(String[] args {  
         A obj = new A();  
        obj.test();  
     }  
}

Using the final keyword, programmers can avoid unauthorized access, and in the meantime protect important information. As an example, there are some logics which are vital to be temper protected as possible. In this case, making the class final prevents the inheritances and so the possibility of tampering also. 

The ‘final’ Methods 

Final methods prevent overriding the specific method in subclasses. Doing so will result in a compile-time error. 

public class MySuperClass {  
  // declaring method as final  
  public final void display() {  
    System.out.println("Hellow World!");  
  }  
}  
public class MySubClass extends MySuperClass {  
  // try to override the final method  
  public void display() {  
    System.out.println("Welcome!");  
  }  
}

With this, the programmer can minimize unwanted behaviors of child classes depicted from modifications of the methods that tamper with logic. In a real-world scenario, programmers can extend the thread class and create new ones but cannot override the isAlive() method which checks whether a thread is alive. 

The ‘final’ variables 

Final variables cannot be reassigned after the first initialization.  

final String str = "Hello";
str = "world"; // throw compilation error!

final int value = 10;
value++; // throw compilation error!

Blank final variables. 

Final variables can be declared without initialization. 

final String str;
str = "Hello World";

That kind of final variable is identified as a blank final variable. Unlike instance variables these blank final variables don’t have default values, therefore, initialization is mandatory for final variables. Otherwise. Once the final variable is initialized, it cannot be changed. So, the final variable acts as a constant.

In JVM compiled codes can improve the performance at runtime, Final variables improve performance during runtime. For the JVM final variables are compiled code then which will help to improve the performance. And the final variables are useful to keep value without changing in subclasses. But final variables cannot be trusted with non-primitive variables because the state or value can be modified. 

Bonus

As a bonus fact, final global variables are heavily used in dependency injection where initialization happens through a contractor.  

public class MyService { 
    private final MyRepository myRepository; 
    public MyService(MyRepository myRepository) { 
        this.myRepository = myRepository; 
    } 
    //Do Something with my repository 
}

The ‘final’ parameters 

Parameters are the values that programmers pass to a method from outside to execute a particular task inside the method. Just like the final variables, final parameters also cannot be reassigned in the method.  

public void sampleA(final int value) { 
    // try to modify the value of final parameter variable 
    value += 1; 
    System.out.println("Value is " + value); 
  }

Conclusion 

As discussed above, final classes avoid extension while final methods avoid unwanted behaviors of subclasses and final variables are read-only by design. The final keyword helps keep up the program’s readability while improving its understandability. And also, some performance gains are using the final keyword.  

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September 14, 2022

What Is Tailwind CSS & Why Should You Be Using It In Your Coding?

As a software developer, some of the items on your project list would be to build your app or software to be responsive on any device, code that is easy to read and maintain and make your coding easy to work with and not a nightmare to figure it out. Well, with tailwind keeping your code clean and your designs unique is very easy.  

What is tailwind? 

Tailwind is a low-level utility-first CSS framework designed to build unique and simple code through the use of utility classes without having to write any custom CSS or having to leave your HTML. Tailwind’s API is a collection of CSS which is classified into utility classes that are used to control elements and create unique CSS designs.  

Tailwind CSS doesn’t require a base format like the other CSS frameworks such as Bootstrap, where Bootstrap resets and installs its default styles on top of the base, whereas Tailwind strips any existing styling present and gives you a clean base to build upon. With Tailwind, you build your version of components using the utility classes which makes every tailwind project unique, which is one of the advantages of Tailwind, you get full control over each component since you’re the one designing and building each component, unlike Bootstrap where a button component in bootstrap is the same for every project unless you do customize it further.

Advantages of Tailwind  

  • Minimal Custom CSS  

Tailwind is a collection of CSS designed and integrated into utility classes, which you as a software developer can use the utility classes in your coding to easily apply CSS to your project without having to build custom CSS.  

  • Flexibility; Full Control Over CSS 

Tailwind doesn’t preset default styles, rather it gives you complete control over your components. For Example; A Button component in Tailwind isn’t based on a preset or the heading tags aren’t fixed on a default size. This level of flexibility allows you, as the coder, to create unique designs and components without your code getting complex.  

  • Simpler and lighter files  

If you are writing custom CSS for every component and a new feature, you can end up with large and heavy CSS files, which will be problematic for the performance of your application. Using the Tailwind CSS framework you can re-use your styles with utilities such as padding.

When working with duplicated content, for example, a movie directory, you don’t have to repeat the utilities for each movie, rather you can extract your utilities into a component or a template partial and make all your changes in one place, making your code lighter and way easier to edit and maintain.

Using Tailwind to improve your code

You most probably are wondering if you should even be considering the Tailwind framework when there are so many other frameworks out there. Tailwind is a low-level utility framework that gives you unrestricted control over your CSS as a developer, so if you need such flexibility in your software projects, then Tailwind is your option. It is also very lightweight and has its benefits.

In summary, you can apply the Tailwind framework to your React project, Angular project, Vue, Blade, etc… It is highly recommended to install the Tailwind CSS IntelliSense extension when you’re getting started on your Tailwind project. This extension helps you with autocompleting your class names, previewing the complete CSS for a class name and so many other uses which can be a great support for someone just getting started on the framework.

Our team of software developers at MBiz Software, use the tailwind framework in most of their projects to build better, awesome applications. Want to get in touch? Visit MBiz Software here   

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September 8, 2022

6 Ways A Work-Life Balance Is Achieved At MBiz Software

Work-Life Balance has never been more called for ever since the global-pandemic having driven a drastic change in the work place. Millions of people having to rapidly adapt to work-from-home amidst others losing their jobs during this period, has led to many a employee realizing the importance of mental health brought about by a better work-life balance in the post-pandemic workplace.

Why is Work-Life Balance Important?

As the popular saying goes “A hungry man is an angry man”, the same applies to a mentally and physically burnt-out person. An overly-stressed employee who has not had the chance to unwind at the end of the workday, and is bound to enter the next work day in an equally stressed working capacity.

As you may have very well realized, when you would have started days with a relaxed mind and body, you had the energy and motivation to effectively get your job done and better engage in the workplace, such as being supportive to your coworkers and pitching in helpful recommendations. On the other hand, when you are having a bad day feeling emotionally drained, you tend to be not so productive doing what you do best.

Having an optimal work-life balance is further emphasized when working as a team. Be it physical labor such as building construction teams or an IT team, a mentally and emotionally unavailable team member affects the productivity of the entire team.

How MBiz Emphasizes A Work-Life Balance Amongst Employees

The team at MBiz Software is constantly encouraged to maintain a healthy social life outside of work where one can explore many other hobbies and activities in addition to an employee’s passion for his work and career. In fact, MBiz strongly discourages employee’s to work outside of their work hours.

6 Ways in which MBiz promotes a work-life balance;

  • Remote Work: MBiz empowers their teams by facilitating them to avail the benefits of remote working such as child-care concerns and schedule flexibility, not to mention the savings in commute time and other similar factors.
  • Flexible Schedules: Full-time and Part-time employees have been given the opportunity to have flexible schedules to blend in with the practical constraints faced in their day-to-day life. Employees at MBiz stand to experience a good number of benefits due to a flexible work schedule. 
  • Health Insurance: As an employee-centric organization at its core, providing health insurance to all it’s employees is one such initiative by MBiz Software in ensuring that it’s the well-being of all its employees are prioritized.
  • Regular Meetups & Events: In remote working teams it is important that good communication and cooperation between the team members are highly held-up in order for that team to be productive and successful. All the teams within MBiz have regular casual meetups virtually if not physically, in addition to internal games & friendly competitions in order to drive interactivity among co-workers to better help with mental and emotional stress relief in the workplace.
  • Intermittent Breaks: At any given time during work hours, MBiz encourages its employees to take a break from the screen to refresh and rejuvenate themselves to help with screen time and overall well-being.
  • Health & Well-Being: As important as it is to maintain balanced overall well-being, many people find it difficult to do so due to all sorts of commitments taking up their time and energy. As a responsible employer, MBiz Software provides its employees with financial sponsorship for the employees to indulge in any type of activity that helps improve their health and well-being. 

Teams within MBiz have developed strategies to effectively complete tasks in hand inside of work hours whilst being on schedule with deadlines. It also helps that the team at MBiz is close-knit and communication within teams and also at the organization level is very efficient, thereby all teams are able to work together to achieve organizational goals whilst maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Having spoken to the employees at MBiz, they appreciate and value the organization’s commitment to employee well-being as opposed to the typical workflow in the IT industry where deadlines have to be met regardless of work hours.

Optimize Your Work-Life Balance

MBiz Software strongly highly encourages a healthy work-life balance to be maintained at all times in order for a live a better fulfilled life.

As many a people have come to realize post-pandemic, maintaining one’s mental health and overall well-being is often underestimated, one of the main factors associated with it being work-life balance.

Here are 25 ways to achieve an optimal work-life balance.

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it outsourcing company
August 29, 2022

05 Benefits Of An IT Managed Services Provider For Your Organization

IT managed services offer businesses an opportunity to focus on their core business functions without worrying about maintaining an IT department or even worrying about their IT needs at all. Outsourcing IT in your organization to a Managed Service Provider (MSP), can reduce your in-house workloads, increase IT efficiency and minimize IT downtimes, through effective IT management by the MSP. Managed IT services can be of various types, from complete IT outsourcing to a hybrid of in-house IT teams and a specialist outsourced IT team, to make up for gaps in existing IT roles and skills within your business’s internal IT team.

What are IT Managed Services?

IT managed services are information and technology services provided by a third-party organization through a contract or subscription basis, to enterprises and businesses, where the IT functions of a business are managed by a third-party IT managed services provider (MSP), also known as an IT outsourcing company. The whole idea behind hiring a managed service provider for your organization is to consign the IT function of your enterprise/business onto a team of IT specialists who could offer a better IT experience based on your organization’s needs.

Benefits of managed IT services:

1) 24/7/365 Support;

IT managed service providers offer round-the-clock service. Say you’re working on that project late into the night, which is due the next day and your server goes down, your internal IT team is long gone for the day and it would be a nightmare to get them back in the office to troubleshoot.

On the other hand, your MSP is just a phone call away from getting your server up and running again. IT managed service providers identify threats beforehand and eliminate threats before they can cause trouble.

2) Minimal Downtime;

IT outsourcing vendors have technological systems and software to effectively monitor and ensure the client has maximum service at all times. One such system is MSP’s analyzing and identifying potential threats to a customer’s IT system, and rectifying them early on, thereby eliminating the possibility of downtime for the customer.

3) Cost Saving;

MSPs have a steady monthly charge in exchange for their IT outsourcing service, although many managed services are tied to varying cloud expenses. All-in-all, this predictability offers better financial planning for your business.

Hiring a managed service provider for your IT function would be cheaper than your business having to find, hire, train and manage an in-house IT team, not to mention the infrastructure needed to achieve the level of services provided by an IT managed service provider.

4) Ability to fill in the skill gap cost-effectively;

Your organization’s internal IT department could be lacking certain skills and talent, which would be otherwise readily available through your IT MSP. Hiring such talent for your business’s IT team could be costly, especially if your organization requires such skills and talent for a short time / for a specific project.

IT managed service providers such as MBiz Software, offer flexible and scalable teams to fit the talent and skill needs of the customer.

5) Streamlined operations

Delegating the responsibility of data, storage, security, monitoring, management, etc… to an MSP, gives better reporting and centralized management of your organization’s IT functions. There wouldn’t be finger-pointing and blame-shifting should a problem arise; your MSP would be solely responsible for monitoring and fixing issues.

What types of managed IT services are available?

It is not uncommon for organizations to utilize MSP services of various types apart from complete outsourcing of their IT department, such as specialized SaaS (Software As A Service) server management & maintenance, NOCaaS (Network Operation Center As A Service), Cybersecurity services, Data Storage Services, VOIP Services, etc…

The old-school model for IT-managed service providers was a break-fix method, where monitoring was performed and the fixing was done when a problem arose. Modern IT MSPs have adopted an improved model of monitoring and management of systems, where systems are monitored, potential threats identified and rectified to eliminate that issues.

Every company’s MSP needs are different. Before you choose an IT managed service provider for your organization/company, you should analyze and identify your IT needs and choose an appropriate IT MSP who can provide you with that service. E.g.; If your organization, as a bank requires an extended team to support the in-house IT Team (without having to commit as an employer), to help with the software development or maintenance of your organization’s banking systems, an IT managed services provider such as MBiz Software would be a good MSP partner for you given MBiz Software’s expertise in the banking industry and the flexibility offered, for you to hire an extended team.

In Summary, IT-managed service providers can be very beneficial for your organization/business, depending on the needs of your business and the availability of quality resources in your organization. IT MSPs can help your business grow with limited resources, especially Fintech and Saas startups.

Want MBiz Software to help you manage your IT? Connect with us for a FREE consultation!

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August 9, 2022

MIS vs ERP: What’s The Difference?

Managing a business requires skill and flexibility, to keep functioning with the ups and down’s that one faces daily. What if a business wants to expand and grow its operations; what does it take? With the evolution of technology, businesses can achieve greater reach in all aspects, such as managing core-business processes in real-time, real-time data management, etc…

At a certain point in the growth of a business, it would need to upgrade and improve the systems needed to manage the data generated from the various functions in the business, such as production data, financial data, HR related data. That’s where MIS (Management Information Systems) & ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems come into play. Both MIS & ERP systems are designed to make data management in a business much simpler and more efficient, although both systems are not alike and have core differences.

To understand the difference between MIS (Management Information System) & ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems, let’s understand the underlying relationship between these two data management systems.

What is an MIS (Management Information System): 

An MIS is technically a system to collect and store data that can be dated back to the maintenance of financial ledgers in an organization. In today’s technological era, an MIS is a software solution for enterprises, used as a centralized database to store and process all the data from financials, operations, personnel & working processes of a business.

The main role of an MIS system is to collect, process, and store data that can be used for monitoring organizational processes, and forecasting and planning future business processes. An MIS offers better efficiency and increased profitability of certain business functions such as finance, marketing, and manufacturing among other professional business areas.

An MIS system covers a large section of the functionality of an organization, which led to the creation of more niche software solutions such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, DSS (Decision-making Support Systems) & OAS (Office Automation Platforms) which are used to create reports, analyze data and support organizations in their decision making process through analytical insights.

Advantages of an MIS:

  • Increased productivity – All the data is stored digitally. Time and resources are saved with the lesser paperwork and lack of manual storage & retrieval.
  • Assisted decision making – Inbuilt data processing tools help the decision makers in the organization to make a decision based on real-time data with autogenerated reports and insights.
  • Enhanced Financial Insights – Easily accessible financial data which can be generated at any time to assess feasibility and efficiency.

Disadvantages of an MIS:

  • Expensive to purchase – Typically Management Information Systems can be costly to purchase, both ready-made solutions and custom-made solutions.
  • Requires proper training – Users of the systems need the training to use the system, which can be costly and time-consuming. Untrained staff can lead to inefficiency.
  • Functionality – Ready-made MIS solution could lack critical features which would be necessary for your business or it could have features that are unnecessary to your business. Alternatively, businesses could choose to have custom-built MIS solutions to suit the needs of their organization.

What is an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system?

An ERP system is a business process management solution developed by software developers for enterprise resource planning as part of an MIS system, In short, an ERP System is an extension of an MIS System.

An ERP system allows for real-time resource planning by integrating all the processes of an organization such as finance, purchasing, inventory, planning, marketing, sales, human resource, etc… into a single system thus allowing for accurate real-time data reporting with the free-flow of information within the different departments of an organization. Without an ERP system, each department within an organization would have separate systems configured for the relevant department. ERP systems synchronize the systems of all the departments into a centralized database accessible through a single application without hindering the individual systems of each department.

Enterprise Resource Planning systems have become much more popular than Management Information Systems in SMEs as well as larger enterprises due to the scalability and the centralized database concept which allows for more synchronized communications within the organization. Industries such as retail, wholesale, e-commerce, logistics, supply chain, manufacturing, production, finance, IT, and real estate have been rapidly adapting to the use of ERP systems.

Advantages of an ERP System:

  • Simplified Reporting Process – Built-in templates make it easier to access comprehensive reports of all the functions in an organization.
  • Scalability – ERP solutions can adapt to the growth of a business.
  • Data security – Most of the ERP solutions come with enhanced security in-built into the system, thereby eliminating the need to have additional security measures taken.
  • Easy to implement – ERP solutions have shifted to the cloud. Organization need not have their physical servers and operation centers to maintain ERP solutions.

Disadvantages of ERP:

  • Solutions can be costly – Most ERP solutions are sold as SaaS products, on a subscription basis. Failure to uphold the conditions of the subscription could lead to inaccessibility of the system and direct impact on the operation of a business.
  • Not easy to onboard – Relevant training is required to set up and operate the system for maximum efficiency.
  • Can be expensive to operate – If an enterprise chooses to maintain the system in-house, expensive hardware will be required, such as up-to-spec servers and storage devices. Ensuring maximized up-time and other maintenance of an in-house system could also be costly. Alternatively, a reputed cloud-service provider eliminates such a disadvantage.

Summary

Both MIS (Management Information System) & ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems are information systems used in an organization. MIS is all about collecting, storing, and processing data & information to generate reports whereas ERP systems are aimed at automating business processes whilst managing the resources of the company and allowing the decision-makers in a company to forecast the future of the company.

Should you be wondering which system to implement, it is advisable to first and foremost identify and understand the needs of your organization and then choose a suitable system solution.

MBiz Software has been the IT partner of choice for multiple global brands, empowering businesses with modern technology. We are more than happy to help you find a suitable IT solution to grow your business! Get in touch with us!

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software-development-agile
July 5, 2022

Why The Agile Development Cycle Is The Way For Efficient Software Development

From front-end developers to API innovators, today’s advancements in tools, technologies, and the cloud make it an exciting time to be developing software and services. Over the past two years having gone through the rollercoaster of global events, one of the major shifts we’ve come to realize is how reliant we’d become on digital infrastructure, driven by necessity. The system held up admirably, even as the people maintaining it struggled to invent new ways of working.

If you were to ask almost any software developer if the program they just finished developing is good enough, and they will say it could be better, similar to the way a musician will finally just release an album, even though they don’t consider it done.

What Is Agile Software Development?

The Agile software development life cycle is the structured series of stages that a product goes through as it moves from beginning to end. It contains six phases: concept, inception, iteration, release, maintenance, and retirement

How organizations are adopting to the Agile Development Methodology

Since the global pandemic emerged in early 2020, organizations are now aware of the opportunities and challenges ahead and realize being successful in the digital age requires agility in software development and delivery, as well as business strategy and operational executions.

According to a survey conducted by Digital.ai, when respondents were asked “What were the most important reasons for adopting Agile within your team or organization?” The two most urgent reasons for adopting Agile are the speed and flexibility required by working environments that continue to be both unpredictable and volatile. These are closely followed by a continued need to focus on alignment across teams to streamline the software delivery process.

Figure 1: “What were the most important reasons for adopting Agile within your team or organization?” | Digital.ai

Supported by shifts toward value stream management and business agility, survey respondents indicate their organizations are now better able to meet their agile transformation goals based on their continued adoption of agile practices.

A Few Key Benefits Of The Agile Process

Well executed Agile software development methodology helps teams significantly improve the quality of their software at each release. Not only that, it allows teams to adapt to change quickly.

  • Total transparency and involvement of multiple stakeholders;

An agile software development process requires involvement and collaboration which is not found in more traditional methods where each phase often only involves a specific set of individuals with expertise to accomplish the tasks for that phase, which limits transparency.

In Agile, before each sprint, the entire team reviews, validates, and agrees on which user stories to assign to the sprint. The developers, analysts, testers, and product owner work together to accomplish the items assigned to the sprint. The team meets daily to keep everyone on the same page. Throughout the sprint, each team member verifies each feature and works closely with the developers to ensure it meets the customer’s needs.

  • Better control on the overall project;

In the Agile software development process, the product owners are very active participants in every sprint, working together with the other teams to determine what goes into each sprint. This way, there is less of a chance of surprises or unnecessary features making its way into the development process.

  • Greater product quality;

On an Agile project, the team does not attempt to develop all features at once. Instead, the team assigns a smaller subset of features to each sprint. That way, the developers have more time to perfect those items before release.

Working on a product in small incremental releases ensures that each sprint results in a fully tested and working product.

Conclusion; Using The Agile Development Cycle On Your Next Project Might Be Your Better Option

There’s no doubt about it: agile is a powerful and efficient method for software development. It does not simply offer benefits to the development team but also has business advantages to the client.

With the agile software development life cycle model, teams can easily handle many of the typical project pitfalls involving costs, scope, and conflicting schedules in a more controlled way.

By organizing and reinventing activities related to custom software development, agile achieves its many objectives in a leaner, more efficient, and more business-focused manner.

Indubitably, the agile software development cycle is powerful and efficient methodology for both the client and the software development team. The typical project pitfalls such as unexpected costs, scope and conflicting schedules can be managed and controlled to achieves its many objectives in a leaner, more efficient, and more business-focused manner.

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April 5, 2022

Is Edge Computing The Way To Go?

Edge computing represents the fourth major paradigm shift in modern computing. The mainframes of the 1950s and ’60s were the first, followed by the shift to the client/server model of the ’70s and ’80s, a model that lasted well into the early 2000s. The cloud was the third major shift, a development pioneered by Amazon’s AWS. Now, edge computing has the potential to be as disruptive to how we share information as the cloud was to the client/server model.

Edge Computing is transitioning networks from being primarily data highways back and forth from a central location such as a cloud database, to a visual depiction of a spider’s web of interconnected, intermediate storage and processing devices. Enabling data from connected devices to be processed and analyzed closer to it’s point of origin, in terms of physical distance. Typically on an edge server or gateway located on the ‘edge’ of the network rather than a distant cloud server or corporate data center.

Richard Villars, Vice President, Data Center and Cloud at IDC says that IT at the edge is about the consumption of IT resources in increasingly ‘smart’ edge locations. These are the urban cores, hospitals, factories, transportation hubs, and a wide range of spaces where we all work, play, and live as well as where we all want to use ‘smart’ things to deliver optimal digital experience.

Transforming the healthcare sector?

According to the research article ‘The cutting edge of healthcare: How edge computing will transform medicine‘ By Computerworld, Many health IT Experts predict that the proximity of computing and storage capabilities of Edge Computing, will transform healthcare by delivering near-instantaneous data processing. Edge could support advanced remote-patient monitoring by processing data from medical devices such as blood pressure cuffs and then alerting clinicians to problematic readings. Allowing for real-time management of medical equipment throughout the hospital premises

“Edge is in the early phases of application in healthcare, but it’s something we’re looking at..”

John Henderson, CIO, Children’s Health of Orange County

The healthcare sector which is rapidly adopting to machine learning, AI, Robotics among other technologies, all which requires significant real-time data processing capabilities for effective delivery in a healthcare setting. With Edge Computing, the healthcare sector has a greater potential for better patient-care as healthcare experts say that this proximity of processing power is needed due to the high costs of moving large volumes of data to the cloud, networking limitations, and latency concerns.

Growth in other sectors

According to the Heavy Reading 2022 5G Network Strategies Operator Survey, current edge deployments are being driven by the healthcare, financial services and manufacturing industries. Heavy Reading says the next largest growth segment will be the media and entertainment sector, with 66% of respondents indicating they would deploy 5G edge services to these verticals in the next two years.

As the compiled data illustrates, the initial edge focus for service providers is to lower costs and increase performance. From a financial perspective, the main driver cited by 63% of those surveyed was to reduce bandwidth use and cost, followed by better support for vertical industry applications (46%) and differentiated services versus the competition (43%). 

Two key criteria for edge deployments by smaller operators (less than $5bn in annual revenue) were improved resilience and application performance. Respondents cited that both these criteria had the effect of lowering costs and increasing customer satisfaction as service level agreements (SLAs) would be easier to fulfill. 

From a financial perspective, the main driver cited by 63% of those surveyed was to reduce bandwidth use and cost, followed by better support for vertical industry applications (46%) and differentiated services versus the competition (43%)

Larger operators bring focus to differentiated services and applications that would create new revenues. The reason higher significance was communicated compared to smaller operators (68% versus 28%) might be centered in the need to compete not only with other telco service providers, but also hyperscalers. This presents an interesting observation considering that some service providers are looking to partner with hyperscalers to overcome challenges with edge deployment (Redhat Blog, 5G edge and security deployment evolution, trends and insights)

Advantages of Edge Computing:

  1. Real-time data processing & analyzing;
    • Reduced distance between the origin points of data and the data storage (i.e: cloud), reduces the latency between data transfers and enables for real-time data processing.
  2. Lower costs;
    • Infrastructure costs for Edge computing are lower than the costs required for a cloud or data center.
  3. Eliminating the possibility of a single point of failure;
    • By utilizing multiple edge gateways or servers rather than a centralized cloud server or a corporate data center, the potential to lose access to the entire database due to a faulty cloud server is eliminated.

In 2016, Salesforce.com went offline for more than 24 hours due to an outage at Salesforce’s North American 14 site (aka NA14). Clients could not access troves of customer data, from phone numbers to emails, and more — which heavily disrupted business. Thus is the major problem with relying solely on a cloud (CBInsights)

Where Mbiz can help

Edge is the way to go for all businesses as it expands opportunities and migrating towards the use of edge computing is a critical direction for enterprises.

As a Redhat Technology partner in the OpenShift Container Platform, MBiz is your partner for Edge Computing Solutions.

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December 1, 2021

5 Things You Need to Know About Infrastructure Monitoring

It’s vital that a company has well-oiled IT Infrastructure Monitoring software. An IT Infrastructure Monitoring software’s goal is to collect and analyze from the IT infrastructure in order to improve business outcomes and drive value generation for the company. This is an absolutely critical role in the business’s setup. An IT monitoring software may also aid the business in decision making, hence playing a key role in the business’s future.

  • Getting the most out of IT Infrastructure Monitoring Software

In order to make your regular tasks less difficult and more productive, there are a few practices and concepts that you need to keep in mind when monitoring your IT infrastructure. These practices may come in handy whether you need to set up a new monitoring software or simply want to make the most out of the monitoring system you already have.

Following the practices listed below will help you to get the most out of your IT monitoring software.

1. Know everything beforehand – When installing IT monitoring software, it is necessary that the manual documentation is well-read and thoroughly thought through. This may not seem like such a big deal at the moment, but in the future, it is definitely going to play an important role. It is recommended that you question the vendor about every little doubt you have before purchasing your software. This is because it is important that you’ve cleared all the questions you have about the software and that you have a clear answer for any question and that you and your team are prepared for any issue that may arise in the future. Creating a FAQ site is also a good idea, for your team to find answers to common questions. This will also be helpful for any new staff that is recruited along the way.

2. Allow the Monitoring Software to do the heavy lifting for you – If your IT monitoring software is capable of solving problems without the involvement of humans, saves time for everyone and enhances the overall speed and productivity of the IT infrastructure, then let it lift the weight off your shoulders. You can either write a script or a command that will respond automatically when a device fails to work properly, perform a restart command which is quite common, or consider investing in an IT monitoring system that can provide data directly to your ticketing system.

3. Do something different – Many firms try to focus on monitoring the typical switches, routers, servers, websites, and workstations. The obvious ones. But by thinking a little out of the box, you could try and monitor everything from the lights to the refrigerator. That allows you to take full use and get your monitoring software to work to its maximum potential. Here you get the value for your money. This will not just help you to monitor what is happening at this moment, but to get an idea of what may happen in the future. If some sort of issue is set to happen in the future, it will allow you to know about it beforehand and solve it even before it happens.

4. Explain everything to your software – This will allow your IT infrastructure monitoring software to function more intelligently, making your life much easier. Instead of giving your software thousands of things to monitor individually, feed your software with information and plan ahead of time. For example, notify the software that this particular server is located outside of that specific network device, and so on. When you do this, you may reduce the number of alerts and better understand where the problem is if something goes wrong by defining how everything interacts with the software. Another example is if you get an alert regarding a failure in the firewall, and as a result, you cannot reach the server instead of wasting time figuring out what the problem is, you can immediately identify that the problem-causing firewall is sparking the issue.

5. Keep alerts to a minimum – It is important that you keep your alerts to a minimum. Most companies do make the mistake of setting up alerts for everything. The majority of the software sometimes simply utilizes the default settings in their program, which triggers alerts for almost everything. This leads to alert blindness which occurs when your administrators and users are inundated with notifications to the point where nothing becomes important. It’s just like being part of a text chain where people tend to send too many unimportant texts. Due to this, the number of notifications in your phone increases rapidly and you are bound to miss important texts and notifications. So, as mentioned before, it is important to talk to your vendor and get them to guide you to set up your alerts in a way that is useful for your organization.

Following these practices can help you maximize the return on your software investment and leverage it to make more informed business decisions. IT infrastructure monitoring is critical to your organization’s mission, vision and ambition since it allows you to connect data with wider corporate goals and use it to uncover the underlying root cause of problems. We excel at guiding our clientele to make strategic decisions, setting up their monitoring tools, and enhancing their overall performance by integrating world-class software technologies. Our plethora of custom software solutions is uniquely tailored to fit the ever-evolving nature of the digital space. Reach out to our 24/7 support team to start building your own custom solution with cutting-edge technologies.

Learn how we can help you: https://bit.ly/2Xp1pYF

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