Company-X has good ears

HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND, April 23, 2018: Company-X has good ears.

Company-X has good ears. Directors David Hallett and Jeremy Hughes listen to prospective clients’ business problems at the very beginning of the soft¬ware development process.

The directors of the software specialist want to hear all about the problem the project needs to solve, the question the project needs to answer or the opportunity the project needs to grab.

If the value proposition and investment budget stack up it is time to take the conversation further and deeper. The directors put together a team to continue a more in-depth conversation with the client.

“I am usually the first port of call,” says professional services manager Michael Hamid.

What Michael doesn’t know about managing the professional services involved in software development isn’t worth knowing. He’s had decades of IT leadership experience at some heavy hitting Waikato businesses including Torpedo 7 and Gallagher Group.

“My job is to get a clear idea of what the client is asking for and get some idea of how much work will be involved before we can proceed,” Michael says.

Usually, Michael is helped with that task by a Company-X project manager, business analyst and solutions architect. All three are carefully chosen from Company-X’s top team to match specific clients and projects.

Company-X project manager Stephen Warren, business analyst Bryan Miles and solutions architect Luke McGregor all have extensive experience in their fields of expertise. They are all ears when they first meet a new client.

“As project manager I have three major constraints: time, cost and quality,” Stephen says.

“As a ‘rule’, the higher the standard of quality that is required for the software, the higher the cost will be to develop it because more time is needed for it to meet standards. The industry standard is to provide the best quality and best time or best cost and best time.

However, at Company-X we strive to provide all three.”

Bryan says business analysis is all about communication.

“The first step in adding value is understanding what the client does and what problems they need to solve,” Bryan says.

“Then we apply our expertise to model processes and design and build solutions, that will enable the client to achieve their targets.”

For Luke it is all about listening to the client talk about the problem, rather than doing lots of talking. “As an architect the best thing that I can do is get a really good understanding of the problem they are facing. Often people come with a solution in mind, but I really just want to hear about the problem from their perspective.”

The Company-X team, led by Michael, takes all the information gathered in the client meeting. When it has all been considered the team estimates what time will be needed to design, develop and test a high-quality solution that will solve the problem.

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