Home again

So it has been about 4 weeks since my last blog and it has been a very busy time at Zipporah (2 new Australian clients implemented, 4 new UK clients signed up). That has meant it has been a pretty long few weeks for me personally as I've been working closely with the UK teams whilst also working on a variety of projects in Australia. What has struck me working on two continents is that so many of the basics of a project are just identical no matter where you are in the world, and surprisingly where these things are needed, the same mistakes are made.

It is funny to think back to when we started on our journey towards international delivery, we heard at home and abroad all about ensuring that we have “globalisation” whilst also managing “localisation”. People made so much of us understanding “local” ideas in another country, but when it comes to IT I believe that “localisation” for a country is no different to your standard “localisation” for a client, and we shouldn't be afraid to bring forward the best practice of what we learn in delivery to every project whether it is in the UK, abroad or (for the future) on Mars!

Good practice in managing a project or delivering systems is the same the world over. A good system is a good system the world over. Now, any system or methodology needs a bit of tweaking for its audience, but that’s the same tweaks that you make for different types of clients it’s not like working in another culture suddenly means everything you know and do goes out the window. Your systems may need language changes, or you may need a new feature here and there, but in my experience take those things back to other clients and they will actually see a benefit. It may be that you need to adapt the way you manage the project, but the rules are pretty much the same. So just to remind you, here are some key points for a successful project:

• Agree a plan. This includes some dates. Even if you are not going to meet them you need the focus.
• Engage your users. You need to overcome worried users fear of online systems and the effect on their jobs.
• Review a plan and keep it relevant
• Engage users to think about how they will use the system. 
• Keep a list for issues and changes so that you have something both parties can refer to.
• Use the best practice that comes from experience of others. It’s a very valuable asset.

It’s that time again and I didn’t get to tell you all the latest news. Keep watching the website it will all be there.

Scott 

Why to check cross browser compatibility?

Ah the joy of being the first to write the developer’s blog. Stereotypically words don’t come easy to the humble programmer whose livelihood consists mostly of writing lines of code, unintelligible to the standard passer-by, but I’ll try to be as coherent as I possibly can.

Being coherent is an important a skill as any and there’s no difference when it comes to the applications we make. We make web based software to be used by a variety of public, private and personal computers. This means that our software has to work on many platforms which we can’t possibly predict. So we try to make our software as coherent as possible across this diverse range of computers.

One such issue which recently faced us was the recent upgrade to the popular web browser Internet Explorer 10 (IE10). An upgrade which meant that the some of our systems didn't recognise it as an internet browser (a curious change seeing as the underlying technology we use and IE10 are both products from Microsoft and should work together seamlessly). Whatever the rationale at Microsoft might have been, we have quickly rolled out a solution to many of our clients and will continue do so with rest as soon as we can.

This is just one instance of a struggle we have to try and create universally coherent programs. It may not always be possible to accommodate those who stubbornly cling onto outdated versions of their favourite browsers (or those who simply forget) and sometimes new browsers can cause a headache too. Yet we strive to make software everyone can use and we will continue to do so for as long as there are people browsing on different setups. We’re in it for the long haul.

Imran Khan
Web Developer

What would we do without SMS?

I finally got round to upgrading my phone today! So my trusty old IPhone 3 (almost a relic I hear you shout) is now officially retired. As I started to move everything over to my new phone, I began to realise how much we all use our phones, to organise our lives. We all take for granted that we expect to be able to access information, make bookings, shop online, text , and oh yes don’t forget actually phone to speak to someone (or is that old fashioned now?), as well as many other things, and we don’t give it a seconds thought what time of day or night it is.

It’s a busy time for Zipporah at the moment as we roll out many of our new and exciting Neo Online systems. Our ongoing partnerships across the UK, Ireland and as far afield as the beautiful Australian coast have ensured that our ongoing investment in development ensures that we are at the fore front of our technology as we all demand more and more from online experiences.

Our system now integrates with SMS service providers which is a must for anyone like me, a busy mum who relies on text messages to remind me what I have done, what I should be doing , and what is coming up next.

SMS integration is a simple and inexpensive way to remind people about the appointment time and the required documents they need to bring along. If you need to cancel, you can call the number embedded in the body of the SMS and reschedule to a more convenient time! This simple solution proved to save both time and money in the number of Registration Offices across the UK already.

So this July, as you register with your local council to give notice for your up and coming marriage ceremony, booking your active courses to get fit, or ordering visitor books for your holidays, it may well be an experience that has been provided by Zipporah ensuring your online booking experience is second to none.

Lastly, while I am writing about SMS messages, I will leave you some advice my 14 year old daughter gave me recently by text message:

Daughter: Mum, why are you using LOL in your text message?

Me: You made me Laugh

Daughter: You can’t use LOL!

Me: Why?

Daughter: 1. You’re not a teenager
2. Nobody uses LOL any more, it’s not cool

Me: Oh, so how am I to express that you made me laugh?

Daughter: Use haha or :D

Me: OK, is heehee acceptable?

Daughter: Ok, I will allow you that one


If anyone else has some useful text message advice for us, please let me know :D


Kathryn Hubbard
Zipporah Project Manager

The Spending Review 2013 hits hard on local government

With the recent announcement of Spending Review 2013 and release of further cuts in the budget aimed at local government, the pressure on local authorities is mounting. The recent review revealed the cuts will proceed at roughly the same pace into 2015-16, taking a further £2billion out of local authority budgets. Some fear this could inevitably affect the provision of frontline services and the communities that these serve. The economic downturn, coupled with demographic growth in the young and old is causing increased demand for the council services, with estimated budget gaps of 20-30% predicted.

In March 2012, PWC conducted an online survey of local authority chief executives to explore how councils have coped with central government funding cuts. The aim of the survey was to develop an understanding on where councils have generated savings and the actions they have taken as a part of their cost reduction programmes. Surprisingly, the findings of the survey have shown that local authorities have successfully delivered against an ambitious programme of financial savings over the year 2011/12 without any marked reduction in the quality of frontline provision.

PWC’s report identified that the majority of savings came from the changes in internal operations, including improvements in back office operations and transforming processes. The report showed that pragmatic stance paid off, with the 90% of council’s executives reporting that they have met or exceeded their savings targets while managing risks.

Councils increasingly have to work on the assumption that continued austerity will be the new norm, and the fresh approach is needed to match the ambitious financial cuts forced by central government. Interactions between authorities and the public have been identified as an area where there are significant gains to be made. Targets for improved service in these areas are easily attainable with sophisticated IT systems for managing services online, which Zipporah already delivers to a number of authorities in the UK and worldwide.

Back office processes are often fragmented, requiring more highly paid and skilled staff to re-work reports and operate complex procedures where integrated process environments would increase performance and decrease workload. The range of these benefits is often accredited to our solutions which are not only integrating complex processes, but are also delivering significant savings across different departments in local government.

Although the changes have shaken the world of local authorities, there is a belief that local governments can drive more efforts to deploy better services for less, by pursuing the innovative business models including commercialisation of service, shared services approach or more effective use of ICT.

In our opinion, the public sector should adopt more prudent and innovative ways to leverage the gap between the income and expenditure in order to generate better value.

Zipporah is heavily involved in the design and deployment of software solutions aimed specifically at local government and we will be bringing more news and blogs with our opinions across on the world of the public sector. Watch this space!

Anna Mazur
Marketing Executive

We're back in blogging business!

Hello Everyone. It’s been a while since we last blogged. It’s been pretty busy for Zipporah around the world so time and resource has been tight but now we are back and we won’t leave you again!

I commented in a previous blog how much time keeping your social network presence up to date takes and alongside creating an international business out of our original SME something had to give and I’m afraid it was the marketing. That’s the problem with growing pains I suppose, trying to balance everything. Still, enough about that for now can’t use all my blogging material in one day. I have also commented that whilst it’s a tough thing to keep on top of the whole marketing and keeping your presence “out there” is still very important and so we given ourselves a solid objective to get the blog back up and running and keep regular content flowing.

My first “real” blog will be coming soon but for today by means of a catch up I thought I would just give some updates. Since last I wrote we have finally made the planned inroads in Australia and we are now seeing that area really pick up pace (I write to you from an airport in China as I book a meeting for 2 hours after my landing as the diary is so busy with people wanting to see us). We have also started to make some progress in Canada and North America. In the UK we continue to grow through our partnerships and ongoing strong relationships with clients. All teams have expanded and we have appointed a position specifically to deal with marketing.

There is so much information to convey. I haven’t even mentioned the Neo systems yet (all complete), nor the expansion plans and new clients in the UK and abroad got pretty short shrift. There will be plenty more blogs though so we have time. Don’t forget where we are and you can hear all about things and get to know our team members – each of whom will be contributing a blog at some point in the coming months. So many things to say but my flight has been called so I have to run. I think Anna is up next so I will see you on the blog again soon.

Scott