How to deal with the troublesome business reality? Read this peace of content.

After founding Solidstudio, Pawel was an originator in terms of pursuing expertise in eMobility. With the build-up of a solid knowledge-base on industry’s needs & wants, he now keeps a close eye on products’ development. He’s also hugely responsible for the business’ side and designs the business models for our products.

Paweł Małkowiak

2020 became a huge game-changer in nearly every aspect of life, bringing new habits, practices, and relationships. The trust issues became even more important. We are heading to an end of the year that requires all of us to take the necessary steps to get through the crisis, face up to the challenges, redefine business goals and come to conclusions for the future. We have all experienced, to some extent, the aftermath caused by global lockdown - the economic slowdown, varied models in response to the crisis. 2020 was a year of testing, remodeling, and creating multiple scenarios. These challenging conditions affected the way people perceive and want to hold conversations with professionals, as well as match business partners. Here you can find some useful, universal information about the global changes in B2B that were dictated by the recent pandemic and how they may help redefine strategy for 2021. Some data and personal view for the passing year as well as tips for the year ahead.

 , the preferences and behaviors of B2B decision-makers have changed dramatically since the beginning of 2020. This applies to the way how business meetings were arranged, as well as to services provided by various participants. Global trends redefine how B2B sales models diversify affected by the pandemic. The survey applies to the new state of sales, and business management which might be helpful when designing new strategies, funnels, and creating partnerships. This is a good time for rethinking and implementing, for both current and future projects, because the design that takes into account the preferences of decision-makers will play a significant role in creating the company’s value and future profits.

 models are preferred by 70-80% of decision-makers. The advantages pointed out are travel savings, safety, and ease of scheduling a meeting. This approach applies either to ordering and reordering, as well as identifying and evaluating new suppliers.

 are as efficient or even more powerful than the prior models. In April 2020 65% of respondents declared that remote sales are as effective as face-to-face meetings (or even better performing). In August the number of respondents claiming the effectiveness of remote sales increased up to 75%. Additionally, 45% of respondents pointed out that remote sales were more effective.

 for remote sales or self-service does not only apply to the low-value purchase. 70% of B2B decision-makers declare the purchase of up to 500,000 USD via a self-service or remote interaction. 97% of the B2B clients consider a purchase in an end-to-end digital purchase model.

 Nearly 90% of the respondents declared that the new, remote sales models will stay for a longer time, and 60% declared to keep a certain limit in face-to-face meetings, even if the salesforce will be ready to meet in-person. Most companies point out additional sets to become successful, these are the ability to remote transition, basic video technology, new profiles of sales representatives, redesigned sales training. Over 80% of B2B companies declare to introduce more agile sales processes and focus on different sales methods, while nearly 60% plan to decrease the number of sales representatives, 70% plans to switch to a more dynamic resource model.

What are the forecasts for the economy of 2021?

After the global economic decline, the market is expected to bounce back. In the mid-2020 we faced a V-shaped recovery, that is noted, to drive to excel pre-pandemic GDP levels by the end of this year - setting the stage for strong post-recovery growth in 2021. The economists from 

 point out that now we are entering a new phase that is on track to deliver 6.4% GDP growth in the coming year. Several industries generally have been more affected by the effects of global lockdown, despite fears and uncertainties, global forecasts are more optimistic than they might seem.

Taking into account the changes that will remain with us, as well as the predictions for 2021, and the fact that we will never return 100% to pre-pandemic behavior and processes, it is worthwhile to redefine the core strategy. When looking for new opportunities, as well as setting new strategic goals, you should not reject the solutions given on the plate. Knowing that the expected growth, as well as digital relationships, will be fed by credibility, trust, and experience, these qualities will play an even more important role in building sustainable partnerships than before. Combining with excellent customer service, unique experiences, and discovering new paths will boost the global recovery, as well as will set businesses on a new road to success.

2020 proved that we create a system of connected vessels. When one broke, the next dependent parts started to leak. After a year of uncertainty, another optimistic view is that since we live in a mostly digitized world, where partnerships transcend political borders, the recovery is expected to happen even faster. Asynchronous recovery, on both, developed and emerging markets will accelerate in the same year. The exact speeding up is assumed around March or April when most of the geographies and sectors will join the revival.

Customer experience will play a central role

Promising forecasts are ahead, here are some thoughts which you can execute right now to be prepared for an upturn. Strengthen your partnerships and focus on making new ones. Setting a customer in a center of all your efforts, or in other words, having a focus on your customer’s needs and filling their expectations, will help you win 2021. Accelerated digital transformation will continue to grow, mapping, and designing improved customer journeys. According to the 

 , 87% of professionals say customer feedback became more important than it was before the pandemic. Businesses also gather feedback in new places, 60% of respondents claimed they’ve added new touchpoints.

A fast response will be crucial but must be followed in the right direction. Whether it is B2B or B2C, the rules are similar. Understanding the value you can provide, and what your customers expect from you will let your business make strategic changes quickly and confidently. That’s one principle that establishes agile businesses apart from the rest.

Face-to-face meetings won’t happen anytime soon, and even if, these will differ from what we have known. Digital experiences will play a dominant role. E-commerce and digital actions have become more important, keeping a close eye on the customer experience, setting new paths, and testing new digital channels will become the new winning strategy. The data that can be gathered and analyzed via digital channels will help improve decision making, shaping the future of your business, and prepare to better react when unexpected turbulences appear. Consider how the experience you’re delivering via the website or digital services could play a dominant role in the 2021 strategy.

Learn more about the advantages of both solutions Amazon Web Services and Oracle Cloud 

During the last decade, cloud computing has been growing at an exponential rate. The size of the cloud computing market is today larger than ever. COVID-19 outbreak accelerated digital transformation, making cloud computing a priority of choice. In 2020, the public cloud services market reached $257.5 billion in 2020. And according to Gartner forecasts, in 2021 the market revenue will increase 18.4% to a total of $304.9 billion.

Naturally, the cloud computing market has witnessed the rise of several players who now dominate the scene. Gartner's 2020 Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud Infrastructure Professional and Managed Services, positions:

If your organization aims to become more responsive to market changes and increase its operational efficiency, moving to the cloud is a smart move. And sooner or later, you'll have to choose a cloud provider. That's why we are here to give you a helping hand.

Why compare Oracle Cloud and Amazon Web Services? We decided to compare these cloud computing solutions delivered by two different vendors – a market leader and a smaller, but promising provider – to show you their pros and cons. Present how they differ in detail and indicate which factors you need to take into account when choosing the best cloud solution for your business.

Before we jump into details, let’s clarify some significant abbreviations, to be sure we’re on the same page. While browsing tips and clues on computing services you may find IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, DaaS and serverless. Following Microsoft and techopedia definitions:

IaaS - Infrastructure as a service - infrastructure is hosted on the public or private cloud instead of in a traditional on-premises data center. The infrastructure is delivered to customers on demand while being fully managed by the service provider.

PaaS - Platform as a service - offers the same kit as IaaS, plus additional features - middleware, development tools, business intelligence (BI) services, database management systems, and more. PaaS is designed to support the complete web application lifecycle: building, testing, deploying, managing, and updating.

SaaS - Software as a service - a complete software solution that you purchase on a subscription plan from a cloud service provider.

DaaS - Desktop as a service - a cloud computing solution in which virtual desktop infrastructure is outsourced to a third-party provider. DaaS relies on the virtual desktop, which is a user-controlled session or dedicated machine that transforms on-demand cloud services for users and organizations around the world.

Serverless - allows developers to build applications faster by cutting out the need to manage infrastructure. For serverless applications, the cloud provider automatically provisions, scales and manages the infrastructure required to run the code.

Note: the term ‘serverless computing’ applies to the event when the tasks linked with infrastructure provisioning and management are invisible to the developer. Servers are still running the code.

Oracle Cloud is a relatively new solution on the market and can't be compared to AWS in terms of scale. While Oracle Cloud might not occupy top positions in global cloud service provider rankings, the solution has a lot to offer. In fact, Oracle has set its cores on becoming a cloud leader in the future.

To help you recognize what Oracle Cloud is all about, let's explore its key features and capabilities.

By combining IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and DaaS solutions, Oracle provides a broad range of cloud services and products such as:

Business analytics, including Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, Big Data, data visualization, autonomous analytics, and more.

Application development, including mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, database, and more.

Cloud infrastructure setup and maintenance.

Cloud for customer services, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.

Security solutions focused on safety and compliance.

Oracle Cloud offers many services and products as an integrated set, allowing companies to lower their spending by eliminating the need to purchase third-party solutions. This is just one of the many advantages of Oracle. Check a detailed look at the pros of Oracle Cloud:

Integrated technology stack – Oracle delivers apps, middleware, and database as an entire, well-integrated system. There's no need to create a patchwork of third-party services coming from different vendors and go through the trouble of adapting them to the solution. To make the most of Oracle Cloud, it's best to invest in the all-inclusive version.

Smooth customization – Oracle allows its clients to be flexible in setting up the cloud service to match their unique requirements.

Cutting-edge technologies – Oracle is an industry leader whose advanced technologies make its cloud platform fast and high-performing. Speed is definitely a factor that sets this solution apart from others.

Scalable architecture – Oracle offers a sophisticated infrastructure that is fully scalable, allowing organizations to expand their IT platforms as they evolve. That feature is important for large enterprises that are going through the process of digital transformation and may want to revamp their operations in one area after another.

Niche focus – when building its cloud offer, Oracle focused on creating solutions that would match the requirements of specific customer segments. Instead of trying to grow its platform in every possible way, Oracle focuses on improving these capabilities.

Great customer support – you can be sure that your issue will be addressed quickly and effectively.

No solution is perfect, and Oracle Cloud also has its cons. Here are the most important disadvantages of this cloud vendor you should be aware of:

Poor low-end offering – since Oracle is focused on the high end, the offering around the low end is limited.

Poor performance with solutions based on .NET.

A minimum product might not be enough – Oracle provides all the services and products out-of-the-box, but these are very minimal solutions that might not be sufficient for companies that need simple functionalities. Organizations in need of a comprehensive platform are even less likely to get what they need.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a longstanding leader in providing cloud servers and storage to organizations looking to offload their data center infrastructures. In the fourth quarter of 2020, AWS generated revenue of approximately $12.7 billion.

Here's why so many companies choose AWS as their cloud provider today.

AWS offers cloud storage that supports managed, hybrid, block, and low-cost archive storages (such as Elastic File System, Storage Gateway, Glacier, S3, EBS), as well as a wide range of data transport functionalities.

Support for various databases (Aurora, RDS, Redshift, DynamoDB). Note: Aurora, Redshift, and DynamoDB are AWS custom technologies.

Support for advanced technologies (the Internet of Things, augmented reality and virtual reality, machine learning)

Tools that enable monitoring of workloads, configuration, and more.

Tools for security and performance optimization.

Analytics and business productivity, Business Intelligence (BI).

A broad range of developer tools (AWS Code Build, CodePipeline, CodeDeploy).

Top security, identity, and compliance management.

AWS has an excellent track record of successful implementations, and its financial performance attracts even more organizations to its offer.

Here are the key advantages of AWS over competing solutions:

Wide range of capabilities – compared to other cloud providers, Amazon offers the largest number and variety of functionalities. Large organizations invest in AWS because it's a sure-fire way to take full advantage of everything cloud technologies have to offer.

Easy implementation, migration, and management – AWS is surrounded by a large ecosystem of consulting partners and independent vendors who help companies to implement AWS-pre-integrated SaaS solutions.

Security and compliance – companies migrating to AWS can be sure that the processes they perform in the cloud are fully secure and compliant.

Excellent support – Amazon's global reach is reflected in the technical support it provides to the customers of AWS. The extensive multilingual customer support with high availability makes the solution one of the most reliable options on the market. The list of supported languages is constantly growing too.

Data centers around the world – Amazon operates multiple small data centers across the entire globe. This enhances service localization and limits the risk of local incidents.

Continuous offer development – AWS is constantly evolving and enriching its platform with new offerings. The vendor also improves existing functionalities, especially their integration and management.

Pay-as-you-go fee model – AWS offers a pay-as-you-go fee model where customers get to control over how many services they pay for, adding new ones as they grow. Minimizing upfront costs is easy with AWS. Companies can lay out expenses as they grow, without investing in products or services they don't need.

Still, AWS has its limitations that might inspire some customers to choose a different provider. Here are the most relevant disadvantages of AWS you need to take into account when making your decision:

The service implementation is complex – many AWS services require a lot of expertise when it comes to their implementation and support. Moreover, companies that want to make the most of them need to have a firm grasp of service updates and innovations. However, you can be sure that managed services providers know how to implement AWS technologies properly and can seek their assistance if you need it.

High pricing – an AWS-based solution might seem to come at a reasonable price. But if you want to create a custom solution that meets the specific requirements, be prepared for larger expenses than expected.

AWS or Oracle – which one should you choose?

The payment model of AWS allows smooth adaptability to market changes and fluctuations, helping your business stay nimble and invest in cloud computing at its own pace. Oracle Cloud also enables users to leverage flexibility, depending on how often customers need to rely on its services. AWS has established a large market presence and operates multiple data centers across the world. Their experience in delivering cloud services and excellent multilingual support is a significant competitive advantage.

Oracle Cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are the two notable players in the cloud market. Choosing between the two options might be tricky, but we hope this guide helps you determine which platform will suit your business needs best.

Running a small startup or an enterprise-sized organization? It doesn’t matter - your data and cloud computing needs will rapidly grow, so you need a solution that will accommodate easily. At Solidstudio we help to fit the right solutions. If you still have some concerns, feel free to drop your e-mail. Or fill the contact form and take advantage of our digital transformation experience. Check back soon!

develops a fleet of software products designed to facilitate EV charging network management. See more about our 

Learn more about how Amazon Web Services (AWS) compares to Oracle Cloud platform and what to choose to fully benefit the cloud.

Oracle Cloud vs. AWS - Which one should you choose for your business?

Keys to success for remote software development team

Being an eMobility leader in various projects across multiple startups, Piotr was responsible for OCPI and OCPP integration as well as EMP and CPO platforms development. With extensive expertise in the open standards field and eMobility tech solutions, he is leading teams of experienced developers and contributing with invaluable knowledge and experience.

Piotr Majcher

Remote software development team best practices

Remote work is very popular nowadays. In an ideal world, every CTO would have unlimited access to talented people living nearby the office and having the expectations their employer may fulfill.

Different reports present different numbers, but in general, the demand for software developers is still much higher than the supply for a long time. So, remote work is sometimes the only option to increase a company's capability of doing their main business.

But how to be a good partner to a company when you see each other only a few times a year?

To do remote work effectively, you have to be really proactive. If you aren't active on Slack, you become invisible to the client. Answering emails after 3 days is not an option. Probably you're doing your job, but to give your client the feeling that you are part of the company, you just can't ignore public discussions, not answer open questions, etc.

What I've observed is that the number of people actively involved in meetings is not linearly dependent on the number of participants. In 3-people meetings, it's highly probable that everyone will have something to say. But when 13 people participate, I would be surprised if more then 4-5 people were involved. Can you afford to be in this quiet group?

People working on-site see each other for a few hours a day; they have many chances to talk. But for remote workers, it's sometimes the only chance to talk to some people with whom they work on a daily basis. It's good to seize the opportunity. But to do it well, you have to be prepared, ask the right questions, and offer solutions.

One of the most important things when working remotely is trust. I think that being transparent is the most important factor that may help in building relationships based on trust. I identified two main areas where being transparent is critical for remote teams:

Before I started to work as a member of a remote team, I was working in an IT department of a bigger company. We would sit together for 8 hours a day. Even if someone had to be off for a few hours, everyone knew about it. The popularity of flexible working time is something really great in our profession, but when working remotely, you have to remember that your client does not sit next to you, and it's always good to inform them upfront about longer off times.

Estimates come with some inaccuracy by definition. It may sometimes happen that you fail to deliver some feature or fix a bug on time. When working on-site, everyone sees you trying to deliver an underestimated story. It's not so visible when you work so hard off-site.

Use existing processes (for instance, daily standup) to talk about problems as soon as you identify them. Inaccurate estimations are acceptable if they have real reasons. But informing about delays is almost always required, and not being transparent here may undermine the relationship you have with your partner.

A casual developer's day consists mostly of coding and meetings. The number of meetings often depends on the seniority, but if you work in a Scrum team, you have about 4 mandatory meetings in a Sprint plus daily standups. Not too much. So you can be focused on tickets, and probably that's why you were hired as an external team member.

But can you do something more for the client? Are there any problems with the existing process you see, and you have an idea of how to improve it? Or maybe there is no space to share the technical news or interesting presentations with other developers, and you think it would positively influence the company's technical culture? There are many options to not only be a coder, which in remote teams is very important.

It's strange, but IT companies building cutting-edge solutions sometimes have problems with basic technical things like the internet connection or setting up meetings with screen sharing and audible voice. It's very similar to developers having problems with the microphone or headphones.

You probably meet developers experiencing such problems often, and those that have it rarely or never. I bet both groups have the same types of problems, but one simply identified the root cause and solved it right after it occurred for the first time.

You may have some issues once, maybe twice, but if you have some problems constantly, it means that you are not paying enough attention to them. If you work remotely, a proper audio setup is a very important thing in your toolbelt.

The list above contains things that are important in professional work, no matter if you work remotely or not. But when being on-site, you get many opportunities to minimize the consequences of not remembering about them. When you're not sitting in the same office as your client, you need to pay more attention to be active, transparent, and well prepared. At the end of the day, you may become as important to your partner as on-site developers, and that may bring value for both sides.

How to be a good partner to a company when you see each other only a few times a year?

Remote work

True cost of software outsourcing - how can you meassure this?

Software development outsourcing is the term used when a technology company is hired to create and build a business’ IT systems. A hugely beneficial practise, outsourcing in this way can help small to mid-sized companies in particular not only gain a competitive edge, but significantly reduce costs and implementation time.

While the premise of software development outsourcing is quite simple and its benefits clear, finding a reputable company to deliver such services can be a challenge. Google ‘software development companies’ and the result is seemingly endless pages of vendors offering their services at competitive rates. So how do you know which of those developers will properly fulfill your needs and offer true value for money?

Knowing what to expect from a vendor, from both a service level and cost perspective is vital before choosing the best 

 for your business. There are a number of considerations that will help you identify a reputable software development company, all of which are detailed here, plus how much you should expect to pay for such services.

Software development outsourcing: What to consider

Outsourcing software development involves a significant level of trust from both parties to work successfully. More often than not, a business will have to share confidential and valuable data in order to get the IT systems it requires. Any reputable software development company will understand this and offer a service that not only meets a brief from technological perspective, but a human one too. To find a tech partner who will do just that, look out for vendors with the following attributes:

 – A reputable software development company will be sympathetic to their line of work being highly specialised, and will therefore help clients form requirements, ask difficult question and make sure all parties are completely clear on the business’ objectives

 – Making sure a software development company has the right skillset to fulfill technical requirements is vital, as any gaps in knowledge could lead to costly delays. A close look at a vendor's portfolio will give a good indication of whether the team possesses the correct skills, across the most relevant technology.

 – The more senior a team, the more business-orientated it is. A good way to gauge experience levels is to look at ‘Meet the team’ pages and see what percentage senior developers account for.

 – While a project might need multiple developers input, it’s a good idea to choose a vendor who will assign developers to one project at a time. Not only will the sense of ownership help increase a developer’s output, but means each project has one firm point-of-contact.

 – Any software development company worth it’s weight will help a client see past the ‘now’ with any technical requirements, and offer the expertise to scale a project up or down as needs and situations change.

 – Developers are in high demand globally, but that shouldn’t mean waiting long periods for projects to get off the ground. At Solidstudio, development can start in a matter of weeks, with the initial planning phase up and running in a matter of days.

 – A quality software development company will stay in regular contact with clients for a project’s entirety. At Solidstudio, weekly and biweekly calls are standard practise. Clients are also invited to join internal communication channels and are welcome to dial into daily standups if they so wish.

 – The last but one of the most important considerations of all. A quality software development company will be completely transparent at every stage of a project’s progression. From planning and implementation, to costs and potential issues, any work completed should be visible to the client, at any point. Be wary of talk of or signs of further outsourcing from within the vendor – this is also a major red flag.

Software development outsourcing: How much should it cost?

So now you know what to look for in an outsourcing software development company, the next big question is how much should it cost? Giving an exact figure here is almost impossible for two main reasons; firstly, because every project will have different requirements. And secondly, creating a digital product is a process of constant change, and therefore an estimate provided at initial contact stages could easily change (sometimes significantly) as the project evolves.

In order to get a realistic estimate, the best first step is to spend a good amount of time considering what your product requirements are and drawing it up into a project specification document. This should broadly outline how the required software should function, in both the short and long term, which will help vendors understand what level of work and seniority is required. It will also help avoid any misunderstandings in the development cycle and costly delays.

After sharing this document and an initial consultation with your chosen vendor before any work is carried out, you should expect an estimate based on an initial assessment of how much work is involved and the level of seniority it will require. Solidstudio has a track record of smaller end-to-end software development projects over a three-month period, as well as bigger, on-going projects and so can quickly offer very accurate initial estimates. These would include costs for:

It is worth reiterating costs can (and almost certainly will) change as a project evolves. Be wary of low estimates, cheaper estimates don’t necessarily offer the best value, and can often include hidden costs that soon add up. Reputable software development outsourcing companies will be completely transparent when it comes to costs, keeping clients abreast of any changes, and ensuring to check before undertaking new work that might add to the bill.

 is often best suited to IT outsourcing. This pricing method means fees are configured based on the amount of time spent on a project, combined with the cost of the effort (materials) used in the process. Solidstudio works to an hourly rate structure of $40-75, depending on the level of seniority required, with management overlay kept to a minimum.

For more information on software development outsourcing, or for an estimate, contact the Solidstudio team!

True cost of outsourcing - how can you meassure this? Read our article to find out.

A business plan for 2021 - what to expect and how to win new reality?

10 DECEMBER 2020 • 8 MIN READ