Softheme Presents .NET System Called to Optimize Business Processes of Siemens | At the end of October Softheme presented to Siemens the final version of their elaboration, the custom business process automation system. Softheme has been working with Siemens since December 2007. Softheme’s team of developers created and installed a system which allows automating business processes of Siemens as well as its interaction with various client segments. The system installed in the Ukrainian branch of Siemens provides entire automation of the representative office’s life cycle realizing complex and nonlinear system of product ordering, purchasing, procurement, distribution, and sales processes. The main objects of the application are: users, goods, debtors, projects, orders, commodity items, debtors’ payments, consignment invoices, and underwriting accounts. The basic programming platform used for the system’s development is Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, C# – for interface and server application development, Transact-SQL – for generating queries and procedures for database administration. Application server administration is executed using Microsoft IIS 6.0 server. Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 is utilized as the main development environment. Export/import operations of the system are exercised using XML documents. The applied format allows viewing and analyzing documents in Microsoft Excel 2003. Finally, reports on operations within the system are generated in PDF format. | Client application connects with application server using .NET Remoting technology. As the access technology to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 the appliance of ADO.NET platform and data provider SQL Server .NET is assumed. Internal Windows authorization is used for user authorization in the system. Accordingly, only intranet domain users are able to access the system. Working on the system almost during a year, Softheme specialists performed detailed requirements analysis, prepared technical requirements, developed system’s architecture, designed user interface, wrote program code, tested and implemented the system. At the end of October Softheme presented the system to the management and employees of Siemens as well as to regional managers. After the presentation, the workshop was held where the main system modules were introduced; questions of the system’s correspondence to the business process and its economic efficiency were discussed. Rustam Nurgudin, Technical Director of Softheme, presented the system. He participated directly in the project management, business goals analysis, and system’s architecture solution development. | Microsoft Certification Taking special care of its personnel development, Softheme has recently provided support for a certification program for a group of developers.
Backed up by Softheme, the employees successfully passed certification exams and received the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) credentials in Microsoft .NET Framework boosting the number of certified developers in the company.
Under this certification program, the developers had to pass the exam measuring their knowledge of .NET development fundamentals. Candidates for this exam were expected to have experience of working on a team in a medium-sized or large development environment that used Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, or Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. | It was also desirable for candidates to have at least 2-3 years of experience developing Web-based, Windows-based, or distributed applications by using the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0, the .NET Framework 1.1, the .NET Framework 2.0, or the .NET Framework 3.5. Besides, candidates needed to have a working knowledge of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008. “Certification is a very significant side of personnel and company development for us. By passing certification programs, our employees not only confirm their professionalism as developers but also justify professionalism of Softheme. We always support the willingness of our engineers to raise and verify their skill level and we will surely keep supporting such efforts in future,” – states Irina Tsulaia, Softheme’s COO.
In addition to Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) credentials, Softheme’s developers possess Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD), Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP), and Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate (OCA) certifications. | GUI for Web Applications In software solutions development, Softheme has always paid attention to details of user interface (UI). Ergonomic and intuitively clear design allows software users to save time on data entry and get the maximum capacity from automation systems. Design of an interface convenient and comprehensive for a user is one of the primary goals in software products development. All necessary for performance functional elements should be located on the screen in a clear and logic manner; at the same time, taking priorities of specific tasks and domain characteristics into account. Each single element should be signed and accompanied with a comprehensible icon. Meanwhile, overall appearance of the application should be integral and should not wear the user down.
Technologies rapidly move forward and the design industry also experiences implementation of new approaches and trends which consider and reflect modern requirements to software development. In order to make software solutions developed by Softheme correspond to the world standards in the sphere of web projects, we decided to participate in the workshop authored and held by an American expert with a 40-year experience in usability and user interface design. His practical advices and recommendations formed during years in working with multiple clients reflected on modern business environment can become a perfect supplement to internal elaborations and standards of Softheme.
The Aaron Marcus workshop was organized by Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative and Russian education centre "edu)itonline" in terms of "Ukraine, The IT First Nation" program. The seminar was held at the “ACCO International” Exhibition center and gathered various specialists concerned about usability topic. These were mainly UI developers, e-business directors, business analysts, designers, programmers, software testers, IT project managers, etc. | During 16 hours of the workshop which included plenty of discussions and practical trainings, Aaron Marcus raised the topics of key strategies and tendencies of Web 2.0; how to develop interface without available information about end users; user analysis: getting rid of “for everyone” design; UI development for global websites; and more. The discussions were accompanied by 60 case studies of successful user interfaces in order to give the participants the visual understanding of effective UI design.
Aaron Marcus, founder and President of Aaron Marcus and Associates, has over 25 years of experience in UI consulting and designing for such clients as Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe Systems, eBay, Nokia, Samsung, HP, Siemens, and others. He is the author of more than 100 concepts of user interfaces for smartphones, including well-known iPhone (Apple). Mr. Marcus has written over 150 articles; written/co-written five books; contributed chapters/case studies to seven books about UI design, information appliances, and culture; and currently serves on the editorial/advisory boards of five industry publications, including Interactions and User Experience.
“We at Softheme are confident that by investing resources in educational programs and trainings we lay the foundation for receiving quality technology solutions and the decision to take part in the workshop appeared seamlessly in the context of our work on quality enhancement of software products we develop,” – stated Rustam Nurgudin, Technical Director of the company.
At the workshop, Softheme was represented by executives who are permanently involved in the process of user interface design, development, and testing: Rustam Nurgudin, Technical Director; Katerina Tokarieva, QA Director; Olga Sabokar, Chief of UI Design and Web Projects Department; and Irina Tsulaia, Chief Operating Officer. | Softheme Splits Its Development Department Into Units Today Softheme presented a new Software Development Department structure which is now divided into two units – Desktop Applications and Web.
Nowadays the Internet and web technologies are rapidly developing and the digital world gains increasing popularity among masses. In these conditions various organizations display more and more interest in different types of web solutions – websites, portals, flash banners, web applications, widgets, etc – as the source of revenue or means to promote their services and/or products. For this reason, Softheme decided to revise the structure of its software development department to be more focused on particular solutions required by customers. In order to pay more attention to the fast-moving web development sphere as well as to stand ground in the earned application software engineering solid reputation, Softheme divided the development department into two separate units specialized in web and desktop applications respectively. “Separating desktop and web applications development and creating individual units for them was a timely enough decision from our side. We at Softheme always make our best to keep up with the times; and today it is highly critical to be competitive in web solutions development. | This is why we have applied energies to build a strong web unit able to develop high-quality solutions,” explained Vadim Sharko, Softheme’s CEO.
“An equally important reason for such decision was the increasing number of web projects our company receives from month to month. To cope with all of them we needed to expand our web team. Now it has evolved to such an extent when it deserves a status of a separate unit,” continued Mr. Sharko. “As far as the desktop applications unit, this part of development has always been one of our core strengths and doesn’t need additional presentation. We currently have a number of large and long-term projects at this unit.”
Softheme plans to keep intensifying both units by recruiting more specialists, holding business trainings and technology seminars, providing certification programs and language improvement courses for its employees. The company regularly receives new project inquiries from current and potential clients processing multiple project requirements. | Ukrainian Outsourcing Forum ‘2006: Softheme Demonstrates Activity at the Annual Outsourcing Event The two days of October 26 and 27, 2006 became the days of real outsourcing festival in Kyiv called Ukrainian Outsourcing Forum ‘2006 which gathered about 150 companies from 20 countries all over the world with Softheme being one of the active participants of the conference.
Organized by Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative, the leading alliance of Ukraine-based outsourcing companies, UOF is the annual event in the national outsourcing life aimed at assistance in exposure and development of Ukrainian market of software engineering and outsourcing services as well as the attraction of new customers to Ukraine for demanding the services. Additionally, one of the conference’s tasks is organizing B2B meetings between Ukrainian and foreign companies and discussing the problems of Ukrainian IT industry development.
Despite being a novice at the forum, Softheme was quite a diligent player actively participating in discussions of numerous important outsourcing topics that affected company’s domain specifics. The information received and analyzed during discussions of “Outsourcing services global marketing”, “Outsourcing technology and infrastructure”, “Human resources for Ukrainian IT industry” and other topics can be useful in many ways and help Softheme to improve their approaches and processes in the nearest future. “Separating desktop and web applications development and creating individual units for them was a timely enough decision from our side. We at Softheme always make our best to keep up with the times; and today it is highly critical to be competitive in web solutions development. | We have a strong team of seasoned QA managers and software testers working in accordance with world standards and providing high-class testing and quality assurance services. For this reason, we couldn’t miss the discussion of this topic and we indeed derived a lot of useful information from it,” stated Irina Tsulaia, COO of Softheme.
At the forum, Softheme was represented by four members of the company management team and had its own separate booth right after the one of Age Software. Softheme’s stand attracted many visitors during the forum among which there were a lot of potential business partners interested in the company’s services, skills, rates, business policies, approaches, etc. As a result, a lot of new useful business connections were established.
For 2 days of the late October the Ukrainian Outsourcing Forum ‘2006 brought together to Kyiv the world experts in the sphere of outsourcing, leading Ukrainian and East European offshore IT outsourcing companies, investment companies, managers of IT departments of Ukrainian enterprises, representatives of government agencies, etc. Such major companies like PWC, Sony Pictures, GE Healthcare, ACD Systems, Intel Russia, Microsoft Ukraine and others were represented at the forum along with smaller ones from different corners of the globe. In general, the companies from the following countries attended the conference: USA, England, Germany, Denmark, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, India, Switzerland, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Russia, and many others.
| Softheme: New Name on Ukrainian Software Outsourcing Map It has been a long way of ups and downs which has logically evolved into a launch of a novel company starting a new history of a new business. Please, welcome: Softheme, 100% Ukrainian software engineering and outsourcing development company, today was officially registered as a legal entity.
Softheme is a young but not an inexperienced business. Several years ago the top management team started from scratch a Ukrainian offshore development center as the subsidiary of the USA company, administrating all its operations including legal issues, finances, recruiting, business development, software development and testing, etc. Moreover, the core team of Engineers and IT Managers of Softheme has been working together for over 8 years. Today, they gave birth to a new company.
“Softheme is a unification of deep knowledge, wealthy experience and huge desire to reach new heights in software development business,” said Softheme’s CEO and co-founder, Vadim Sharko. “Our firm’s mission is to be a reliable IT partner for our customers and to enhance their competitive ability by means of the latest technology implementation and cost-effective solutions development.” | The new company enters the outsourcing market with a broad service specialization comprised of web development and design, digital development, 3D, application and database development, independent testing, dedicated development centers setup, and other services. In various web and desktop solutions development, Softheme bases on such modern technologies as .NET, Java, C/C++, PHP, Python, SQL, to name a few.
Using its proximity to the West as an advantage, Softheme plans to target its software outsourcing efforts at the clients located in the European Union, Nordic countries, UK, USA, and others; providing services to successful startups, small to medium size businesses, and enterprise companies.
“Softheme is a 100% Ukrainian business without any representative offices or development centers abroad. This means that our clients will never see any maintenance costs included in our prices. Besides, we employ only Ukrainian IT talent, the most seasoned professionals. All these benefits allow us to keep our rates down while supporting quality at the highest level,” explained Irina Tsulaia, co-founder and COO of Softheme.
The newly created company plans to pay special attention to effective selection procedure of candidates in order to keep building the company’s team from the best IT specialists in Ukraine. Besides, Softheme’s management is going to actively implement employee development programs including certifications, business trainings, technology seminars, English language courses, etc.
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