Working in Tandem
We’ve understood one thing very clearly at Perennial. Working together as one team with the client in an open, transparent and straightforward manner works wonders for the desired results. We therefore make some honest demands at every stage to understand and perform the task better. This way we create an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect.
Here are some of the areas where we develop a sense of association by raising queries and requesting co-operation.
- What exactly do you propose to achieve from this application ? What are the end results ? Tell us in actual quantifiable and estimable measures. We will tell you how to achieve them.
- Can we be provided a spot of freedom in developing the choice of technology best suited to your needs?
As professionals in the field we are in a position to create the most appropriate environment for you in the realm of Lotus Notes. Of course you are knowledgeable in these areas and we would be glad to draw upon your resources in order to evolve the best solutions.
- What engagement model do you think should be selected?
As you know you could either go in for the Fixed Bid Model or the Time and Material Method. So you would first need to ascertain from your corporate planners as to whether they have all loose ends in connection with the application perfectly tied up. If they have, then perhaps the Fixed Bid Model would be best. If however your business analysts would like to leave the application development open-ended in order to make provision for changes in the future, them the Time and Materials Model would probably be a better option as it would add to flexibility and offer greater leeway for rectifications.
- Can we build and grow as we move along?
What we mean by this is that we believe a relationship develops best when we proceed slowly, step by step. It may not be in our best interests to begin our association with a rush job. If we take up one assignment, make mistakes if must be, correct ourselves and move on, then you get to assess us more closely and we appreciate your requirements more clearly.
- What exactly is the SCOPE of the application?
By experience, we’ve learnt it’s certainly imperative to serve the purpose fully, but nothing more. Improvements and wider scope could always be added on later. Precious little is to be gained by creating an application that is too big for its boots.
- What provisions would you like to make for changes?
In your business environment, chances are you might want to keep your application dynamic and resilient so as to accommodate whatsoever essential changes that are indispensable to the currency of your operation. If too many changes come in demand without proper provision or preparation, the application might tend to buckle under pressure.
Technology, Engineering & Technical Services
We at Perennial are accustomed to calls from our clients, asking for quick response support in various areas. There’s no way we could just deliver and sit tight. Our clients face constant pressure form their customers and the vicissitudes of market interaction are such that insensitivity to emerging conditions would lead to irretrievable loss.
So not only do existing products need to be effectively maintained, additional options have to speedily installed to maintain relevance. Only then can the optimal life cycle of the application be ensured.
In order to achieve this, products have to be engineered to meet the challenges and for this, technical know-how on the fingertips is a dire must. So along with product release management, we offer our services right through the life-cycle on areas such as feature enhancement, functionality development, product expansion, platform porting and more day-to-day matters such as testing, bug fixing and technical support.
We maintain a high degree of preparedness to offer business critical systems. Very often, customers of our clients themselves operate in multi-platform environments.
This would evolve multi-level and in-depth interaction especially in complex, problem-solving situations. Whether the services required are on-shore or off-shore, we provide holistic solutions derived from our knowledge bank and expertise pool.
Project Management
Perhaps the greatest challenge to a successful working business relationship is faced in the realm of Project Management, where the finals analysis determines the effectiveness of team co-ordination on both sides.
At Perennial, we’ve perfected this relationship as an art, where both teams complement the efforts of each other, closely interacting at every stage to ensure that success is inevitable. In the end, not only do we deliver the end product within the specified timeframe and budget, we also in the bargain lay a strong foundation to launch into extensions of the project to higher levels as well as new assignments.
And needless to say, in the process the strength of the relationships also keeps growing by leaps and bounds.
How we do it
The first thing to understand is that in the arena of Information Technology, project management does not confine itself to technology upgradation alone. It is essential to remain keyed-in into business objectives and development plans and maintain a state of preparedness.
Some of the tasks in this direction would include :
- Clear definition of project objectives.
- Assessment and understanding of budget needs and resource planning
- Restructuring the organization if needs be in tune with the project structure.
- Redefining the infrastructure requirements and ensuring the installation of essentials.
- Understanding and providing for appropriate application configuration tasks.
- Training the end-user to optimal utilisation of applications.
- Development of seamless alignment between business objectives and IT solutions.
- Development of methodologies that control management of cost factors, time scheduling and personnel deployments.
- Creating safeguards and back up for errors at various stages, cost overruns, manpower turnover and other exigencies.
Effectiveness in management
At Perennial, as in our other divisions, we ensure perfection in quality standards in our Project Management as well.
The most important aspect on this front is spontaneity, ie, sensitivity in appreciating and reacting to emerging needs and situations in the development stages of the project.
In the tremulous market place, it is to be expected that the client management may deem it fit to consider shifts in strategy right midway through and it is the bounden duty of project management to provide for these changes.
At Perennial we build resilience in our work system to provide for such shifts without in the least affecting the final effectiveness of project objectives or creating unused or underutilized packaged applications.
And where the initiatives are multiple in nature there is need to design the right enterprise architecture to ensure concurrent efficiency in the process and minimize resource downtime at any eventuality.
Technology Application
It is an overstated fact that in the IT business the watchword is technology and its importance can never be overemphasized. The technology store together with the resilience that provides for instantaneous adaptation to change ascertains the ultimate success of the project.
At Perennial we have an internal structure that facilitates process re-engineering together with streamlined co-ordination among its various working arms to ensure that strategy initiatives are constantly protected and maintained.
Our technology application therefore is geared toward the following :
- Ability to redefine the scope of the project in relation to the changing business objectives.
- Quickly restructuring aspects relating to time and cost schedules.
- Re-establishing the decision taking process real time by involving the key persons in the process, orienting them into the new scenario and recommending viable strategies.
- Swinging the decisions into action-based programs that address relevant issues as soon as they emerge into focus.
- Measuring up performance levels in tune with the revised targets and taking speedy measures for errors in direction if any.
In this exercise, we assign managers right on the job who work with clients hands-on to keep the mission on track. Our technologies include the utilization of appropriate toolsets such as Agile, PMBOK, six Sigma and RUP (Rational Unified Process).