WiredScribe: The Business of IT

The economic turmoil we witnessed over the past two years has left no industry untouched. Nevertheless, the global insurance industry has continued to post growth, thanks partly to newly emerging markets like China and India among others in the Asian subcontinent. The first quarter of 2009 witnessed a drop of 3.8% in net written premiums. The momentum accelerated in the second quarter of 2009 during which the net written premiums declined by 4.8%, the biggest drop in decline ever since ISO began recording quarterly changes in premium. The economic turmoil we witnessed over the past two years has left no industry untouched. Nevertheless, the global insurance industry has continued to post growth, thanks partly to newly emerging markets like China and India among others in the Asian subcontinent. The first quarter of 2009 witnessed a drop of 3.8% in net written premiums. The momentum accelerated in the second quarter of 2009 during which the net written premiums declined by 4.8%, the ...

Increased productivity and effectiveness, reduced time-to-market, enhanced product quality, lower spending on testing, and faster test cycles are some among the many allurements offered to entice organizations to invest in test automation tools. Test automation, if executed judiciously, can streamline the testing process, and deliver high returns on investment (ROI). It can speed up testing to accelerate product releases, improve test coverage and reliability, ensure consistency, and offer significant financial savings. Nevertheless, studies indicate that globally close to 50 percent of all test automation projects fail. The test automation outcomes either fail to deliver on financial expectations or do not satisfy stakeholder expectations. There have been several cases in the past where organizations have abandoned their expensive test automation tools and have resorted to manual testing to get the development project back on track. Reasons for failure are many—lack of a clearl...

Globally, software defects cost the economy hundreds of billions of dollars each year. At a more micro level, it costs organisations anywhere between US$ 5 million to US$ 30 million annually in lost sales and customer goodwill depending on the scale of its operations. Even a single high profile outage could irreparably damage a business. Increasing the overall defect detection efficiency in an application during the software development lifecycle could shrink application maintenance cost considerably and have a direct impact on an organisation's top as well as bottom line. This makes rigorous and comprehensive testing of applications prior to go-live a critical business imperative. While organisations have been conducting in-house testing and even outsourcing certain segments of the testing process to external service providers, market dynamics demand faster test cycles, testing earlier in the life cycle, and improved software quality a...

Examine the balance sheet of any manufacturing firm, and one would notice that inventory accounts for 20 percent to 60 percent of its total assets. True, inventory has a definite financial value; a comprehensive and effective inventory management policy can result in increased revenues and enhanced efficiencies. Nonetheless, is inventory really an asset or could it toll the death knell for an organization? Factors like demand volatility, shorter product lifecycles, rising customer service expectations, increasing global competition, diminishing brand loyalty, shrinking margins, and globally distributed supply networks have made quick response to marketplace changes critical to a company's success. This has led to different echelons within the supply chain network resorting to safety stock accumulation to maintain customer satisfaction levels. While inventory is necessary for the smooth functioning of business, high inventory exposure could mean financial losses due to ...

Much has been written about the numerous benefits and ills of outsourcing. Nonetheless, it is now a business imperative for most companies, underpinning the need to ensure a successful outsourcing relationship. Being a strategic decision with long term impact, the success of outsourcing depends both on the service provider and the outsourcer’s commitment. An analysis of outsourcing relationships that have not been successful reveals a certain pattern. Based on our extensive experience in outsourcing engagements we have identified the eight most common but serious mistakes enterprises are likely to commit while outsourcing their processes to a third party service provider. This paper analyzes each mistake in detail and outlines measures to avoid these pitfalls. The following illustration highlights these eight common mistakes.   Poor Governance This is one of the most commonly encountered problems and a ke...

Movies these days have brighter colours, mind-boggling stunts and more; even the glitches seem to have disappeared. And it’s all thanks to the use of multimedia and animation. A peek into how this technology has made movie-watching more interesting. The tension in the air is palpable as Bollywood heartthrob Aamir Khan races on the tracks towards the speeding train, in the movie Ghulam. The train is just seconds away from hitting our daredevil hero when he jumps off the tracks, missing being hit by mere inches. No, it was not a stunt artist. And contrary to popular belief, neither was it Khan himself. The scene was shot with Aamir Khan running against a static wall, which was later fused with the shot of a running train, resulting in the nail-biting action sequence that was shown on screen. The collective gasp of the audience resounds throughout the theatre as Rani Mukherjee is hit by a speeding car and goes flying into the midst of oncoming vehicles.   A shot th...