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Sydney, 28^th April 2021 – Blazeclan and Innovo, two leaders in consulting, technology services and digital transformation have formed a strategic alliance to take on the Australian IT services sector. With a core focus on delivering best-of-breed cloud enablement, technology integration and testing with a competitive pricing model, the partnership aims to usurp competitors in the sector.

The burgeoning cloud adoption market in Australia is powering businesses to add an extra $9.4 billion dollars to the economy with 45% of businesses in Australia using paid cloud technology. Enterprises increasingly need advanced digitisation to ensure their operations and competitiveness in a post-pandemic world, something that is facilitated by cloud technology.

The strategic alliance is spearheaded by ex-Capgemini heavyweights; Amit Bassi (Managing Director of Blazeclan ANZ), Nick Finlayson (Executive Director of Innovo Technology) and Paul Thorley (Chair of the Blazeclan/Innovo Strategic Alliance) who saw an opportunity to challenge the industry and take key market share from the major systems integrators.

“Australia’s adoption of cloud technology and services has been relatively slow compared to the rest of Asia Pacific. We’ve found that current cloud service providers are slow to implement, exorbitantly costly and miss the mark on building cloud cybersecurity resiliency,” says Nick Finlayson.

With a number of joint major customers including ANZ Bank, ACCC and Latitude Financial, the strategic alliance has proven to offer a different outcome to the status quo.

“Cloud services are defining new business models, facilitating a more innovative and dynamic way of driving digital experience, and are unlocking the next wave of modernisation,” comments Amit Bassi.

“We saw a huge opportunity to offer an end-to-end cloud enabled digital transformation service that starts from strategy through to agile delivery using the same one local team. This, in turn allows the customer to shift to a more dynamic and responsive way of running their business. We do this in a bespoke way, with one localised onshore team that is supported by an offshore team to take on enterprise sized projects, with a 24/7 operations.”

The strategic alliance will draw on the engineering manpower of over 500 technical experts located in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Pune. Through the alliance, the team will also tap into the collective expertise of subject matter experts in France, Belgium, North America and Canada to deliver advisory, engineering, assurance and managed services for digital, cloud and data platforms.

At their disposal will also be extensive partnerships and expertise on AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Azure that will support enterprise customers to build a cloud solution that adheres to data sovereignty compliances in the respective countries.

“Getting fast access to best-of-breed cloud solutions from the likes of AWS – of which Blazeclan is one of Asia Pacific’s most successful consulting partner – is a must-have for our customers,” comments Paul Thorley.

“We’re thrilled to, once again, be leading with a powerhouse alliance and cloud services offering that enables our customers to power to new heights.” He concludes.

Over the last six months, and with the challenges of activities during the covid period notwithstanding, Innovo has experienced a marked uptick in our client partners drive to innovate and reap the benefits of Digital Transformation and Cloud Migration.

Through these activities, we have identified that there are significant benefits in a focus on one of the key pillars of Digital Transformation – Tech Simplification.

The majority of businesses we have been fortunate to assist with have common challenges associated with their current state technology ecosystems; primarily related to overly complex IT systems and ecosystems that have developed organically over time:

multiple variations
multiple configurations
complex customisations beyond configuration
loss of technical knowledge and IP of time
multiple ‘like’ application sharing redundant/common functionality (e.g. communication, collaboration etc)
end of life technologies

The reason behind this increase in technical complexity are many and varied, but the common elements usually are related to:

a result of decisions around shifting business priorities
immediate need vs strategic view
governance or budget compromises
changes (customisation etc) to meet specific business needs and outcomes
increasing integration size as more applications and systems are implemented
lack of structure decommission analysis and implementation paths

Interestingly, complexity awareness within an organisation is usually greatest with IT streams, noting that there is little business awareness of these complex issues. However, once the business responsible areas of an organisation to become aware (for multiple reasons), these organisations generally look to Digital Transformation as a mechanism to try to stay relevant usually via:

new technology acquisition (increasing cost effect and complexity), or
look to simplify across people, process & tools (technical simplification and cost reduction)
Note: at Innovo we see that both elements mentioned above can be valid when approached holistically, with a strong IT simplification strategy and related plans in place

Speaking specifically to technical simplification, the key goals are to reduce cost, increase agility, reduces complexity, and enable ease of change. When considering tech simplification, several elements need to be considered:

Identify the Tech simplification drivers for your organisation, and develop plans accordingly:

Increase focus on business and client outcomes
Minimise change impacts
Increase transparency of technology complexity and technical debt, across whole or organisation
Increase productivity
Reduce duplication/multi redundancy costs (e.g. identifying and reducing the number of collaboration/communication tools/systems etc)
Improve BI/analytics and metrics measurement
Improve agility & innovation
Minimise costs across operations, change events, personnel, technology costs

Once you have identified what your goals and drivers are, what should you do?:

Baseline your current technical ecosystem – undertake a baselining assessment, utilising well understood and structured techniques and methods. e.g. 6R assessment (Rehost, Re platform, Refactor/Rearchitect, Repurchase, Retire, Retain)

Focus on a top-down driven, future goals and vision centric, holistic approach:
- Organisational strategy, people/process/technology, invest in more than technology (e.g. focus on capability increase across people/process/technology)
- Make simplification a mantra, enable processes whereby simplification is a key consideration for all future change decisions
- Beware of inherent bias – asking the people who are invested in a specific technology or process to suddenly adapt and change can be problematic, leverage partners/independents
Baseline TCO, apply ROI for all considerations:
- Be mindful of cost out first’ vs ‘strategic enablement’ – sometimes need to increase initial spending/increase ROI term is required to meet your future vision
- Be mindful of existing contractual relationship, in particular, multi-year with termination/penalty clauses…identify these up front!
Focus on transformation as a journey, not a one-off. Build-in continuous evaluation
Drive collaboration & culture, do not just focus on technical change in isolation

At Innovo, we take great pride in having assisted our client partners in achieving their Digital Transformation, and specifically their technical simplification goals. We would invite any organisation that is interested in knowing more about this subject and interested in embarking on this journey to reach out to us to organise a time to discuss.

With the prevalence of available agile methods and techniques, increasing numbers of organisations are looking to adopt agility into their work practices – a trend that has been increasing over the last several years, and as reported in publications including the World Quality Report.

With this, there are obvious and apparent challenges being observed, not least of which is the apparent increase in hybridisation approaches – a confluency of waterfall whole of organisation with incremental introduction of agile practices. Whilst this may appear to be a ‘best way forward’ approach to transition, in particular for larger organisations, without careful planning and executive-level (i.e. top-down) stakeholder commitment to whole of business change, what you can end up with is the worst of both worlds.

One major area of concern that Innovo consistent observes is the prevalence of misconceptions around agility and perceived benefits. Agile, for better or worse, has now become a marketable (and therefor a marketing and selling) term, with corresponding issues with the substance of what is actually being offered. The term ‘Agile’ has almost become a doctrinarian term, sparking arguments between methods and models in absence of underlying analysis of best fit and needs for an organisation.

The lack of in-depth understanding of Agile, and the prevalent misconceptions on what Agile is, does, and delivers, can lead to significant impacts.

Putting aside the minutiae of process activities, Agile at its heart needs to be thought of as a different approach to delivering organisational outcomes. A few points to note include:

· You still need to plan and document – planning is critical to Agile; the primary difference in the Agile approach is for less ‘up-front’ plans and documents, and increased focus on incremental

· Agile is not inherently “faster” than other methods per se – however, you can obtain an increased velocity through its utilisation of continuous communication & feedback loops…in effect being more efficient

· Agile can be utilised for more than just I.T.

· A major mindset change is required in adjusting from traditional top-down command & control structures to that of Agile self-organisation…getting the balance right on this is critical for Agile success

· Get help. Really! When considering embarking on Agile you need to be aware of the effects this will have for the whole of your organisation. This needs to be planned just like any major transformational exercise and having partners who have undertaken this before successfully can make all the difference to the level of Agile adoption success.

Sydney, June 10^th Innovo Technology Solutions, a testing and software development consultancy, has today announced its exclusive release of their CDR Conformance Platform (CCP) in advance of the Product Reference Data go-live implementation of the Australian CDR rules and standards. The tool, a fully automated conformance platform allows banks and Third-Party Providers (TPPs) to quickly verify its APIs and other requirements are Open Banking and CDR compliant with the published rules and standards as defined by ACCC, Data61 and the Australian legislation. Innovo’s platform facilitates fast-tracking the launch of open banking services for both Product Reference Data (PRD) and Consumer data. For all ADIs, PRD is mandated to go-live in 3 phases commencing 1 November 2020. Consumer data is scheduled to go-live in 2 phases commencing 1 July 2021.

With an architecture that supports both Data Holders and Data Recipients via its virtual banking module, test harness, api library and conformance reporting module, CCP can be configured to support Open Banking and other industry verticals when mandated in future legislation.

CCP enables automation and customisation of the end to end testing process, thereby creating a conformance validation for current and future scopes, regulations and standards. Complete with its conformance reporting , and dashboards, the platform coupled with the Innovo service affords banks a cost effective and significant accelerator to meeting its compliance obligations.

The Innovo CCP supports conformance validation in-line with the ACCC rules for Consumer Data Rights and Open banking . Legislated in 2018, the Consumer Data Right is designed to give consumers the right to safely access data about them, held by businesses, and direct this information be transferred to trusted third parties of their choice. It will first be adopted in financial services where it is known as open banking.

The Innovo team is at work already incorporating additional industry verticals and evolving standards into the API library, including upcoming legislation to include the Telco, Utility and Healthcare sectors. Fully customisable and user-friendly, the tool enables technology teams to quickly test APIs in-line with CDR legislation, specific needs, and business requirements.

“Simply put, any organisation who participates in the Open Banking ecosystem is obliged to comply and must prove that they meet the standards” comments Nick Finlayson, founder of Innovo.

“Realising and assuring ongoing industry compliance can be costly and time consuming. Harnessing the power of the Innovo CCP platform, we will enable stakeholders to deliver proof of compliance quickly and cost-effectively for the present and future requirements. This is a significant enablement tool for banks and participating 3^rd Parties to meet accreditation criteria under the ACCC mandates. ”

With a team of over 50 technology specialists across Australia and overseas, the Innovo team has facilitated major advances in software development and testing across multiple verticals. The team develops and incorporates the latest and most innovative technology in their projects, leveraging its DevOps methodology and agile practises.

ABOUT INNOVO TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS:

Innovo has increased its presence in the software development and testing industry across Australia and New Zealand since early 2015 with a focus on providing best-of-breed technology delivered by expert Testing, DevOps and IT consultancy professionals. Innovo’s people bring deep sector-focused knowledge to client projects, to help them mitigate risks, lower total cost of operations and open up revenue streams out of their technology investments. Innovo’s agile methodologies and technology partnerships can connect customers to provide on-demand technology solutions with deep expertise and trusted delivery.

www.innovotech.com

Sydney, 25^th March 2020 Innovo Technology Solutions, a testing and software development consultancy, has today announced its partnership with MuleSoft to provide consulting services for MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform™. Anypoint Platform unlocks the power of API-led connectivity, enabling organizations to connect apps, data and devices more rapidly and efficiently.

MuleSoft provides the leading platform for building application networks. Innovo Technology Solutions’ implementation expertise and industry knowledge, coupled with MuleSoft’s technology, gives clients the support and tools they need to harness the rapidly growing number of apps and data sources. With Anypoint Platform, organizations can unlock new revenue channels, improve customer experiences and drive innovation.

“With the rise of cloud enablement and digital transformations, the need for connected systems across legacy and digital apps is crucial now more than ever. To successfully transform, build and operate a digital environment, Australian enterprises need future-proofed development, testing and integration capabilities,” said Nick Finlayson, Director and Co-Founder, Innovo Technology Solutions.

“By partnering with MuleSoft, the Innovo service team are able to offer integrated software development and testing services, as well as secure data transfer for critical and non-mission critical data that moves in-between legacy and digital applications. Our partnership with MuleSoft increases integration capability between environments and while benefiting the organisation from an operational standpoint.”

With a team of over 50 technology specialists across Australia and overseas, the Innovo team has seen major advances in software development and testing. The team incorporates the latest and most innovative technology in their projects, while implementing devOps methodology and agile practises.

“We were attracted to the MuleSoft value proposition due to their focus on cloud integration and connectivity of SaaS applications. The flexibility of the API-led approach to connectivity in Anypoint Platform enables our customers to address the historical challenges of secure data integration in a quick and simple way. When we apply this to our customer sites, it allows them to focus more on their business and get more out of their technology investments.” comments Finlayson.

“As an organisation, we know that understanding and implementing an efficient software and integration system is not just about the technology. Installing a tool can get you quick wins, but an efficient program is continuously improved and matured to ensure lasting success. We value the MuleSoft technology because it allows us to design and implement future-proofed and flexible software solutions that can scale, and transform, should requirements change.”

“Further to this, we have realised that the problem often involves more than one technology, for example many clients have thousands of applications in their enterprise network, but lack harnessing the full power of these investments because they’re not integrated. With a simple API-centric solution that is overlayed by efficient software and testing, we are able to bring these disparate applications together to improve efficiency.”

“Our customer base in this area is growing and we’re consistently processing and understanding our customers want to use, protect and maximise their technology investments. With the best of breed technology in our solutions, including MuleSoft, we’re confident that we’ll deliver major digital transformation projects on time and on budget.” concludes Finlayson.

“With the explosion of disparate technologies today, connecting them all quickly and efficiently is the key to gaining a competitive edge. Through its partnership with MuleSoft, Innovo Technology Solutions is enabling its customers to create a dynamic application network to achieve their goals and accelerate their pace of business,” said Brent Hayward, senior vice president of global channels and alliances, MuleSoft. “We’re pleased to welcome Innovo Technology Solutions into MuleSoft’s partner ecosystem and look forward to working together to deliver significant business impact to our mutual customers.”

As a MuleSoft Partner, Innovo Technology Solutions helps clients address on-premises, cloud and hybrid integration use cases with scale and ease of use.

ABOUT INNOVO TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS:

Innovo began disrupting the software development and testing industry across Australia and New Zealand in early 2017 with a focus on providing best-of-breed technology delivered by expert Testing, DevOps and Project Management professionals. Innovo’s people bring deep sector-focused knowledge to client projects, to help them mitigate risks, lower total cost of operations and open up revenue streams out of their technology investments. Innovo’s agile methodologies and technology partnerships can connect customers to provide on-demand technology solutions with deep expertise and trusted delivery.

www.innovotech.com

How implementation of open banking can increase your competitive advantage.

If you haven’t heard what open banking is keep reading because now is the time to act. In a world where technology is involving itself in all sectors, the merger of the banking and technology sectors is particularly notable. Traditionally the banking and finance sectors have been required to be ‘tight-lipped’ and meticulously protective of their assets. Now moving into a more -open- world, banks are challenged with the progressively changing requirements. They are now required to ensure they are constantly innovating, implementing new services and technologies for their customers all whilst maintaining compliance. To keep up they must take lead from the tech sector, they must adopt open architectures. Adopting open banking will ensure you not only keep up with your competitors but give you an advantage over those who don’t embrace it.

Embracing APIs

APIs aren’t going anywhere. They are the primary mechanism for building open platforms. Industry veterans, Google, Facebook, Amazon and the likes, along with smaller start-ups are allowing third-party companies to use APIs to access and alter their platforms and code. Giving access to such information and assets to peers may seem contradictory – in some cases this information ends up with competitors – however the results from embracing this way of sharing is significant. You are able to continuously innovate at speed keeping up with the market or moving first. There is the opportunity to consistently develop new products and services, not to mention the openness to sharing knowledge and technology.

Why Now?

Soon – very soon – open banking and APIs will be standard, there are wheels-in-motion to make it so. In 2016 a Payment Services Directive (PDS2) was released in the EU included standards and guidelines for the use of APIs – it mandates banks open their APIs to third-parties. Australia has now followed suit with the Consumer Data Right legislation that was passed this year the aim to improve consumers’ ability to compare and switch between products and services. It will also encourage competition between service providers, leading not only to better prices for customers but also more innovative products and services. This is classified as “Open Banking” legislation in Australia. Under Open Banking, consumers will be able to access and safely transfer their banking data to trusted parties. Open Banking will be introduced in phases, with basic product information to be available from 1 July 2019.

Not only is regulation driving this change a study from IDC note “Six in 10 banks are open to partnering with financial technology firms (fintechs).” Traditionally fintechs were seen as competitors to big banks, however embracing these start-ups as collaborators means they can work together, co-develop and create new ways to innovate and grow, all enabled by APIs.

How can you become open?

In recent years we have seen most big banks become more agile, however generally speaking. Their development processes and architectures can be rigid as they are designed and built for large scale. By appreciating the value of open banking, banks need to leverage old architectures with contemporary approaches. By introducing open technologies and architecture, banks will see an acceleration in the implementation of APIs.

By identifying, training and hiring the right consultants’ banks can work towards attaining major improvements in open technology. These consultants must provide daily updates and adjustments to these new technologies, a vastly different approach to outdated models of the past.

With the right team the next three steps should be taken:

Create Internally used APIs

By using existing software and architecture banks must create APIs that are simple and – most importantly – for internal use at this stage. By approaching from the inside out, the API code is written for the business by the business and minimise scope creep that can come if considering external factors when developing how the APIs will be used to the general public. This way, the API code foundation can be deployed and adopted quickly to ensure speed to market, and later evolved to meet external functionality requirements.

Build a core team across your organisation

The focus here is to build a core team, across all internal business functions that concentrate on open banking. The team should include leaders, developers and programmers. This core team can work collaboratively to identify opportunities that can be acted on to create new technologies. A key area to look at would be micro-services.

External community

With the internal team and APIs in place the bank can now start to engage with the external community. This can be with a pre-existing external community or the bank can build their own external community. By building a new community the bank can engage with external developers who share, build on or create new technology platforms that the bank and its customers have access to.

Banks are now turning to the technology industry to adopt new ways of thinking and improving their banking software. This new way of thinking, with the implementation of the above, can produce new, faster and advanced developments for banks and their customers.

Is your organisation looking towards getting proactive with the new Open Banking standards of Australia?

Here at Enex Consulting we have been instrumental in providing the strategy and thinking around best approach to testing the Open Banking ecosystem, governing it and running the testing regime on a day to day basis, including test automation, in partnership with our clients.

We work with Australia’s leading enterprises to transform their organisations via technology leading strategy, testing and development services. Enex Consulting was formed in 2014 by industry veterans from the enterprise software delivery and testing industry in partnership with a number of specific clients to address the lack of high-quality engagements currently offered in the market. We specialise in large program delivery, testing strategy and capability / maturity assessments, DevOps alignment and organisational digital transformations.

We specialise in delivering our clients program objectives by partnering with them to transform their existing IT landscapes into their future Digital Vision on time and within budget.

To learn more please contact us.

We all know the importance of QA but does your CIO and the team of C-level executives really care?

Understandably the executive and development teams have differing priorities, however, testing should be taken seriously across the whole organisation. By completing well managed testing of your products early, often and consistently, your product will ultimately get to market faster. It also reduces instances of defective software resulting in unsatisfied users. With the right testing strategy in place, you can avoid costly errors, inspire further innovation and get to market sooner meaning higher revenue.

Most importantly, your CIO is more concerned about operational viability, capex reduction and operational efficiency rather than technical granularity of testing and deployment. Below, we have outlined some 5 key arguments related to the concerns of your CIO that will help them understand the importance of testing:

1. Mitigate unsatisfied users

To reduce the risk of customers doing the testing for you, you need to do the right testing and properly before it goes to market. Pro-active and real time monitoring of production logs to have a continuous feedback loop into the regression testing regime can help prevent critical customer experience issues. If not mitigated this can lead to high user dissatisfaction resulting in revenue loss and the potential for any data saved in your software to be breached. The solution? Do risk-based testing for optimum coverage and CX testing to focus on end consumer before it gets to market.

2. Automated Testing to ensure a good ROI

Testing is imperative to ensure the money spent on development is well spent. There is no point having your CIO pour money into developing without actually testing to see if the new product is doing what it’s meant to.

Ensuring your new software delivers as planned to your requirements and using automated testing is the simplest way to ensure the money you have spent developing and engineering this product was, in fact, well spent. Testing in phases will ensure the final product is worth the investment.

3. Invest in consistent and repeatable testing and tooling

The most common phase in testing is in the final stages of development. This is a valid phase to complete testing, however, good developers know testing needs to be done earlier and more frequently. If anything major is uncovered in the final phase, or something as simple as being understaffed for any reason can have a major impact on your release date. Being on time in such a competitive market is imperative.

4. Invest in your testers

Having a team of expert testers is imperative to the efficiency of your testing process and development as a whole. In many cases developers are left with the duties of carrying out the testing. From a CIO perspective this may seem efficient, however, development and testing require two different skill sets.

Whilst employing developers who can also test can be seen as beneficial, asking any employee to move between two job types will always decrease their efficiency and therefore the project efficiency. Developers also, generally speaking, lack the ability to test from the user perspective. We advise cross training your testers to be multi-disciplinary (ie BA tester or SDET) and to have a sufficient knowledge management system to avoid single point dependencies.

5. Expert testers give real-time feedback

Having a dedicated team of testers also ensures you get real-time feedback on your product. Performing testing early on in the development process can ensure adequate feedback from a user perspective on what works, needs fixing or if anything is just not achievable.

Conversely, receiving this feedback in the final stage of development means there could be a fundamental issue that could lead to major redevelopment that could have been rectified earlier in the process if detected. Alternatively, if this feedback is missed altogether and comes back from the customer, this will reduce user satisfaction and any potential redevelopment becomes very costly.

There are numerous benefits to testing consistently and repetitively throughout your development process and it is imperative your C-level executives understand these benefits too. Working together to ensure the software you are creating is delivering as promised is absolutely critical to the success of your product. Testing ensures you have developed the perfect product you set out to produce.

Enex Consulting was formed in 2014 by industry veterans from the enterprise software delivery and testing industry in partnership with a number of specific clients to address the lack of high-quality engagements currently offered in the market. We specialise in large program delivery, testing strategy and capability / maturity assessments, DevOps alignment and organisational digital transformations.