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Why Mobile App is Important for Businesses? By Rohit Srivastava TechnologyThought Leadership 7 mins read These days, typically everybody utilizes cell phones for their day-to-day activity. The importance and impact of cell phones in our everyday life can’t be denied. Cell phones have transformed from a standard gadget to a major point of attention for…
By Niharika Shrivastava Whitepaper 13/04/2022 Digital technologies are defining business and are an active driver of competitive advantage, business models and even business viability. We have seen disruptive new business models emerge, based purely on technology, owning no assets whatsoever and yet posing a serious challenge to long-established incumbents. These fully virtual entities have used…
GIG Economy in the IT Sector By Tanaya Ganguli Featured PostsThought Leadership 5 mins read In the 2000s, the digitalization of the economy and industry developed rapidly due to the development of information and communication technologies such as the Internet and the popularization of smartphones. As a result, on-demand platforms based on digital technology have…
Quality Engineering Services By Niharika Shrivastava Thought Leadership 4 mins read In Today’s era of digital transformation, ‘time to market’ factor has become more critical to business success whether its development of new products or enhancements. With the advent of DevOps, Microservices, AI, Machine learning and Agile concepts the traditional approach of software development has evolved…
Leveraging Digital Identity for your business By Vishakh Venugopal Thought Leadership 7 mins read Abstract: Digital Identity has well earned its place in the top 10 technology trends in the world. Amidst unprecedented times brought on by a global pandemic frictionless access to digital services has become more important than ever. Large corporations, governmental services,…
Mobile App Development By Siddharth Gujarathi Featured PostsThought Leadership 4 mins read Today, the availability of mobile apps is on the increase such that it produces a noticeable change in the way humans experience computing. Mobile phones have surely made life ‘on the go’ easier. Imagine not going to a grocery store but still able…
The Intelligent recommender By Saurabh Herwadkar Thought Leadership 3 mins read Abstract: Artificial intelligence and allied technologies are driving processes which were till now available only to humans such as learning, problem solving, pattern recognition and decision making. Curated data can be used to train models using statistical methods for solving problems related to classification…
Better informed decisions using Data and Analytics By Saurabh Herwadkar Thought Leadership 3 mins read Abstract: Data is the new gold. Any mature Mobile app or web-based ecosystem is ingesting gigabytes of data daily and storing it in Sql and No Sql databases. The data if not collated, conserved, and curated properly is nothing more…
From discussing common misconceptions around CRM systems, to achieving CRM business success, Arrk’s Head of Marketing, Richard Leech, is next up on The Hot Seat. Watch the video to see what he has to say!
A key benefit of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is how easily and efficiently you can display data in a dashboard, so you have key information at your fingertips as to what’s going on with various functions at that precise moment. Depending upon your role, your level (team leader/manager etc) and your daily activities, having a personalised…
Becoming Customer Centric – the Secret to Financial Services Success By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read For anyone who may have been oblivious to it before, hopefully the widely publicised recent demise of Thomas Cook highlights that you can’t run an analogue business model in a digital world. Due to cutthroat competition and…
The long and winding code – or Power Platform? By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read Coding can be a daunting skill to acquire. Not only is it about learning a new language and potentially new software, but it also requires a lot of hours of practice. But getting on the road to code…
In our new video series, Gary Gautier, Director of Customer Success, talks all things outsourcing in The Hot Seat. Sharing war stories, as well as successes, our recent CIO Roundtable was a great forum to discover how to be smart when entering an outsourcing partnership. With both speakers and peer to peer discussions adding to…
Application Modernisation – not as black and white as it seems By Arrk Team Thought Leadership 5 mins read You’ve established your legacy system isn’t meeting your constantly evolving needs, but the thought of scrapping it and starting afresh is waking you up in the middle of the night. Surely there must be a way…
In our fourth and final #AdamAnswers episode on outsourcing, Adam will be explaining how to measure success in an outsourcing partnership, and why SMART planning is essential to any outsourcing partnership. Make sure you follow the Arrk SMART principles… S – Specific M – Manage A – Arrkitect R – Realistic T – Test Watch…
On episode 3 of #AdamAnswers, Richard steps in and shares his thoughts around the internal business culture of outsourcing, as well as how to address it.
If you’re embarking on a digital transformation journey, make sure you pick an IT partner, not a supplier. Our latest #AdamAnswers explains why a win-win ethos on both sides wins overall.
Adam answers your questions in our new series #AdamAnswers. First up he looks into why outsourcing is more than just about cost cutting – a topic that we concentrated on recently in our last roundtable.
Being Customer Centric – the Key to Survival and Success By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read For anyone who may have been oblivious to it before, hopefully the widely publicised recent demise of Thomas Cook highlights that you can’t run an analogue business model in a digital world. Due to cutthroat competition and…
Smart Outsourcing CIO Roundtable – Key Takeaways By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 3 mins read On Wednesday 19th June, we delivered a CIO Roundtable from our Manchester City Centre offices focusing on how ‘SMEs Can Challenge Big Business Through Effective Outsourcing’, which was attended by senior IT leaders and business executives from a wide range…
Why Digital Matters to the CFO By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 2 mins read The role of the finance team in organisations is changing. The finance team has become ever more responsible for creation of competitive advantage within the organisation; through driving insight and innovation quickly and responsively across the business. The key concerns of…
Smart Outsourcing – Your Flexible Friend By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read We’ve already looked at Why SMEs outsource and What SMEs can outsource in order to level the playing field against larger organisations. So this article will look at the final piece of the jigsaw and will focus on the How to…
UX is a Crucial Factor in the Native vs Hybrid App Debate By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 5 mins read In a previous article we asked the question ‘Mobile App vs Mobile Website – What’s Best for your Business?’ and the answer ultimately depends on your business objectives and potentially a two-pronged approach could be…
Join us for our next CIO Roundtable – ‘SMEs Challenge Big Business Through Outsourcing’! Held at Arrk HQ here in Manchester on 19th June, we’ll be sharing with you real life examples of how companies have adapted their approach in order to achieve a competitive advantage, and how this non-traditional delivery model could work for…
The Changing Face of Outsourcing By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 3 mins read In a previous article we looked at how ‘SMEs Challenge Big Business Through Outsourcing’ and how it is levelling the playing field somewhat for SMEs, who simply can’t afford to match the in-house support services that larger companies maintain. By helping them…
Maintenance or modernisation? Build a legacy with your legacy systems By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 5 mins read Are your legacy systems a millstone around your neck and/or swallowing up valuable internal resource? When left behind in a business’ digital transformation, clunky legacy systems can affect a company’s speed to market as well as the…
SMEs Challenge Big Business Through Outsourcing By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 3 mins read It’s that age-old business mantra we’ve been hearing since we can remember – the customer is king. It highlights the importance of customers (and potential customers) in every business. Traditionally, it’s a rule that means your company promises to provide good…
It’s that age-old business mantra we’ve been hearing since we can remember – the customer is king. It highlights the importance of customers (and potential customers) in every business. Traditionally, it’s a rule that means your company promises to provide good customer service. But with the current evolution on work and business settings, ‘the customer…
Mobile App vs Mobile Website – What’s Best for Your Business? By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 8 mins read There’s no hiding the fact that mobile has revolutionised the business world. With the advances in mobile technology, it’s provided opportunities for organisations to connect more people into enterprise-wide applications. Faster wireless networks, broader coverage, increasingly…
Excuses, excuses, excuses – is CRM really to blame? By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 5 mins read Having recently talked to several companies about their CRM systems, I’ve been astonished by the amount of people who said that their CRM wasn’t helping them to do their job better – and some even admitted having to…
An Introduction to Insurtech: What You Should Know About This New Industry By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read The insurance industry has remained much the same for decades and, due to a risk-averse culture, particularly resistant to change. Before the advent of new technologies, it wasn’t a competitive market where new players could…
A morning at the Business Digital Transformation Forum By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 5 mins read On the 26th February, I headed to The Landing in Media City, Manchester, to explore how business leaders in the north west are approaching digital transformation. From implementing new technologies to ensure their business thrives, to employer and recruitment…
Though Shall Succeed – Our Ten Commandments for CRM Success By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 7 mins read No one undertakes a CRM implementation with the intention of failing. However, according to Gartner, “55% of CRM initiatives fail to meet measurable business objectives” and other failure reports continue to repeat themselves year after year with…
How to Unlock the Full Potential of Your CRM By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 3 mins read Many articles around CRM project failures tend to focus on how to avoid them, which is great, but according to industry analysts, year after year multiple reports address the ongoing issue of failure rates. And for CRM implementations…
SME Commercial Lending – Unlocking the Next Big Growth Area By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 2 mins read The economic contribution of UK SMEs is elevating Britain towards a prosperous future. And improving the growth and productivity of smaller business is vital to enhancing the economy as a whole. Finance markets need to be effective…
Digital Transformation: This is How! By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 3 mins read We’ve all heard the statement “the time for digital transformation is now!” but how do you go about championing this? Embarking on a digital transformation can vary from fully integrating your systems all the way to introducing artificial intelligence into day-to-day work.…
Festive fundraising for Mustard Tree By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 2 mins read The festive season is full of warmth, food, gifts and loved ones – something that a lot of us might take for granted. So this year at Arrk, we wanted to help extend the festive spirit to those who might not be…
How to solve your problem solving By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 5 mins read In today’s world, increasing customer expectations combined with the associated lack of customer loyalty, is making the ability to react to change at speed a key business priority. Being first to market to maximise an opportunity or simply trying to stay…
CDO vs. CEO: Who’s really leading the digital transformation? By Team Arrk Featured PostsThought Leadership 4 mins read Digitalisation is sweeping every area of modern life, and any business that fails to keep up with this trend will be left behind. Companies need to adapt and utilise digital technology in all areas. But whose responsibility…
Macmillan coffee morning By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 2 mins read Arrk recently paid its respect to the millions of Macmillan professionals and volunteers who support those affected by cancer, by taking part in the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning to raise awareness and fundraise on behalf of this worthwhile charity. There were plenty of opportunities…
My First 8 Months at Arrk Group By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 3 mins read In my interview for Arrk, I was asked what I wanted to get out of this job. If I remember rightly my response was something like: “I’d like to learn all about the computer systems that are increasingly pervading every…
Following on from presentations around GDPR at our London event, we answered some of our audiences questions around company breaches and best practice tactics. Watch other videos of the day here.
Kevin Brown presents at Shakespeare’s Globe, London, all about the 360° view needed for customers in the era of GDPR. For the financial services sector in particular, this is a very important topic to keep on top of.
John Carter, Principal Consultant at Arrk Group presents at Shakespeare’s Globe, London. Talking all things compliance for the financial services, he breaks down to process to being compliant into five stages. From commercial finance to accounting (and everything in between) take a look at how we digitally innovate with the Financial Services sector.
Arrk Group are proud to announce that we are official business partners for this year’s Associations UK Congress, which takes place Thursday 14th December and Friday 15th December at Manchester Central. This year’s conference programme consists of educational talks, group discussions, networking opportunities, conversation hubs, and plenty of exuberance. As well as having exhibition stand…
GDPR: The Positives for your Organisation By Team Arrk GDPRThought Leadership 4 mins read First adopted in April 2016, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which becomes enforceable on May 25, 2018, has been met with widespread controversy. Many of its elements – including the need for many organisations to have a Data Protection Officer…
Please note this event has now passed, click here to go Home. Join us at the iconic Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames on Wednesday 6th December 2017 for a GDPR morning briefing. Cutting through the negativity and scaremongering surrounding the regulations’ non-compliance implications, the session aims to educate and inform…
Creating a Winning Membership Engagement Strategy By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 3 mins read Empowered customers are shaping and redefining the way business operate, they demand consistency and excellence, be that in-person or increasingly across a complex web of digital environments. Thus the term “Age of the Customer” was coined, an acknowledgement that the customer…
Google taking positive action on web security By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 6 mins read For over twenty years it’s been possible to protect interaction with websites using encryption. The majority services we interact with daily such as online banking, major online retailers and social media giants such as Facebook, Google, Twitter etc use this…
Rapid Development + Serverless Cloud: Event Recap By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 3 mins read It was a bright and sunny September morning as we set-up the event. We were presenting at one of the most unique venues I’ve ever been to. Stas Vonholsky from Amazon Web Services and I were speaking about Arrk’s rapid…
Using Psychological Safety to Build Great Teams By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read A new-starter, a young graduate just out of university, is sat in a meeting attended by some senior managers who are discussing an important business initiative. The graduate notices a glaring error in the financial statement on the screen that…
Disruption in Lawtech is on the Horizon By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read Even the legal industry isn’t immune to technological disruption. The legal industry is like banking and insurance. There’s a lot of red tape to wade through as it’s notorious for relying on physical record-keeping and having an eye-watering amount of…
Big Data Trends in Business By Team Arrk Featured PostsThought Leadership 6 mins read Data underpins most of the technologies popular today, and big data refers to large datasets that cannot be handled by traditional databases. Big data is high-velocity, high-variety and high-volume, requiring particular methods for managing or processing that differ from traditional data…
The Rise of Voice Search By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 5 mins read Voice search is on its way towards disrupting the search engine industry and how we discover content online. It’s posing challenges for search engine marketers as the nature of search changes from text-based to voice. What is voice search? Voice search uses…
The Dawn of a New Era for Technology in the Construction Industry By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read Construction is an industry in need of technological disruption. Firms must frequently coordinate large-scale, complex projects with a large number of stakeholders, and project requirements change on a regular basis. Everyone knows that construction work…
GDPR: A year to get compliant By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read It’s just under a year now until businesses are required to become compliant with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). This is a directive from the European Union that deals with issues of data protection and privacy for EU citizens. Since…
The Slow but Steady Rise of Civic Tech and Smart Cities By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read Both Civic Tech and Smart Cities are technologies used en masse for the greater good. They are driven by government initiatives, used by the general public, and the latter is supported by the private sector. Civic…
East Sussex County Council engaged with Arrk Group to digitise and enhance the way it deals with its school allocation appeals procedure. The previous largely offline service offering didn’t meet the expectations of today’s parents, as the service wasn’t available around the clock, therefore parents weren’t able to check on their appeal status at a…
What is Cloud Sprawl? By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read After the recent WannaCry cyber event that rocked the National Health Service and thousands of companies worldwide, the thought of any additional threats to the way we use technology in our organisations is both frustrating and deeply concerning. So, mention the term ‘cloud…
Open Source Software: Demystified By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read The term ‘open source’ is used frequently, and is applied to fields other than software programming. Companies often describe their business approach as ‘open source’ when they mean they have an open source leadership style or workplace culture. In this article, we’ll discuss…
Native, Hybrid or Web apps: Which one to choose? By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 7 mins read It goes without saying that most of us find it hard to imagine life without smartphones and mobile apps. There are apps for just about everything from getting you up in the morning, working productively during the day,…
For organisations already well acquainted with the benefits of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Arrk’s AWS Cloud Optimisation Review provides expert analysis and insight into utilising the Cloud more effectively. There is a risk that running sub-optimal Cloud solutions for any period of time can lead to the assumption that Cloud is more expensive than legacy infrastructure…
Our Cloud expertise and experience helps a wide variety of organisations harness the power of the Cloud and irrespective of how Cloud-centric your organisation is, Arrk offers a range of innovative solutions, geared around maximising the myriad benefits on offer. Benefits such as: Flexibility Scalability Speed Capital-expenditure Free Collaboration Security The advent of Cloud technology…
Arrk Group optimised a large AWS environment to ensure best use of resources, using a variety of techniques and tools, including New Relic and Google Analytics. The demands on the service vary throughout the year, with the service needing to deal with activity spikes of 500% and 400% over normal usage conditions. A Cloud performance…
Why Optimise Cloud Deployments? By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 5 mins read It only makes sense that creating best practices and cost-effective systems increases the likelihood of business success. So why not apply this same thought process to Cloud deployment? Why is optimising Cloud deployments so important? Have you noticed increased reliance on the Cloud…
Arrk’s Radical Transition Towards Test Automation By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 5 mins read “We have to move towards automated testing really, really quick!” In the early days of our adoption of automated testing, this was the clarion call that rang within Arrk that got us starting a program in earnest. This story explains how…
Arrk Group is proud to announce we are sponsoring the ‘Best B2B Business Project’ category at the 2017 Big Chip awards. The annual awards ceremony will be held on Thursday 15th June at the renowned Hilton Hotel, Manchester. The Big Chips are by far the biggest of technology focused award ceremonies outside of London, and…
SaaS: Software as a Service and How it’s Taking Over By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 5 mins read You’ve probably used SaaS before, even if you haven’t heard of this type of software distribution model until now. Just think of a web service like Google’s Gmail email provider – that’s an example of SaaS. SaaS…
Arrk Group and Camden Council have been shortlisted at National Technology Awards 2017 under the category; ‘Best Public Sector Project’. The inaugural National Technology Awards will be held on 17 May 2017 at the prestigious Millennium Hotel London Mayfair. The glitzy, black-tie event begins with a champagne reception, followed by dinner and the Awards ceremony with presenting duties carried…
Cyber Security: Impacts on the Insurance World By Team Arrk Thought Leadership 4 mins read “I think cyber insurance is going to be one of those must-buys because there are only two types of businesses: businesses that know they have been hacked and businesses that don’t know that they have been hacked.” The words of…
We are delighted to confirm that East Sussex County Council and Arrk Group’s ‘School Allocation Appeal’ transformation project has been shortlisted for the prestigious ‘Digital Project’ award at RITA, 2017. The exclusive and celebratory evening will involve entertainment and networking in the heart of London on Thursday 11th May at the Hilton Bankside Hotel. The…
Using Analytics to improve the User Experience At Arrk, we start any new project with something called EmbArrk™. It is usually a two-week (sometimes shorter, sometimes longer) series of intensive workshops that kick-starts a project and manages to generate such animation and buzz within the Arrk and customer team, that it is a challenge to…
On Thursday 27th April, Kable Government Computing Presents: Digital Transformation for the Public Sector will be taking place. Arrk Group is an official Workshop Partner on the day and we will be delivering a session on How to Dodge a Digital Disaster in 30 Essential Minutes: EmbArrk™ Here! This workshop will give an insight into…
The Rise of Open APIs and Software as a Service Open APIs have been increasing in popularity as the nature of the web changes. Web-based applications have become more integrated with one another, as users expect an increasingly connected experience. As the software market becomes more crowded, applications have become increasingly specialised in order to…
Customer Journey Optimisation is a term applied to online retail. It’s popular with ecommerce businesses, and bricks-and-mortar companies who have adapted their models to sell products online. The rapid spread of the internet from the late nineties onwards has led to a huge growth in ecommerce, with most businesses having no choice but to stay…
Arrk Group, a digital software company, has relocated its head office to Grade II listed 196 Deansgate in Manchester as part of a major investment. The move sees Arrk take on greatly expanded city centre office space and marks a key milestone in the company’s history. Having started life on the top floor of a…
Many businesses will be affected by PSD2 (Revised Payment Service Directive) coming into force in 2018. It has huge potential to impact the banking sector and signals new growth for payment services. Despite uncertainty due to the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, companies should still comply with the upcoming changes to regulations. What…
Bringing the omnichannel into the supply chain The first rule of retail has always been that “the customer comes first” – however, that statement has rarely been truer than it is now. With so many retail options available, the customer has truly gained power – if they don’t like your service they can not only…
‘Hey, someone, somewhere mentioned AWS S3 had an outage?’ It is the last day of February over at the Amazon Simple Storage Service team and a team member accidently executed a command which knocked out several important servers which lead to the S3 outage. We would have missed this event, if it hadn’t been for…
You will have heard of organisations ‘off-shoring’. This relates to the relocation of a business process from one country to another and is usually an action to cut out large costs such as manufacturing. Whilst off-shoring clearly has its monetary benefits it seems off-shoring your business can come with its issues – for example, language…
There are plenty of wild statements being thrown around about artificial intelligence – from a threat to our jobs to a threat to the human race as we know it. So is this all hyperbole or are the fears actually based on some facts? We investigate. So what is artificial intelligence? The concept of artificial…
Dairy Crest is an award-winning British dairy company, processing and selling high volumes of branded dairy products and ingredients for the UK and global markets. Maginus supplies IT services to retail and wholesale distribution companies, specialising in delivering complex technology projects that help retailers and distributors compete in a highly competitive industry. At different times,…
Lean methods have been transforming manufacturing and software development – so could they be applied to public services too? As the public sector undergoes its digital transformation, the ground is fertile for new ideas and new methods that can deliver more effective outcomes: and lean innovation might just hold the key. Wait, what is lean?…
DevOps has evolved into a global movement, yet it is a term that still generates confusion. Many organisations are aware of their need to enable more efficient delivery. Everyone recognises the existing points of failure, but when it comes to deal with them very little action is taken within the organisation.If you are new to…
It’s become an annual tradition here at Arrk to gaze into our crystal ball and look into the digital future at this time of the year. Over the last two years we have delivered our digital predictions for 2015 and our digital predictions for 2016 and, if you look back at those articles, we don’t…
This is a fictional account of a day in a tester’s life in 2049. As much as I have relied on some research material (see list at the end), this blog is a figment of my imagination intended to entertain more than anything else. The term ‘tester’ in the context of this blog is used…
Innovation is helping us do more with less. The success of Amazon, a retailer that doesn’t have any stores and simply ships its good from warehouses was one of the earlier examples of the disruptive rise of digital giants. In more recent times, it has been followed by Uber, a car sharing firm that carries…
Ever heard of European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR)? It may be quite the mouthful, but it’s one that will soon be rolling off the tongue – because you have less than two years to ensure you’re compliant with it. Wait… what is EU GDPR? In short, GDPR is regulation being introduced by…
There is a new term that has entered the vocabulary of not just information technology specialists but also those within the financial services industry, in the form of “fintech”. Referring to the plateau of technology emerging in the financial sector in the 21st Century, fintech has become much more than a term for technophiles –…
Cast your mind back to the summer of 2009. Facebook was still in short trousers and the first iOS developers had only been cursing Objective-C for a year. The mobile apps race was already up to speed and although exciting new apps were being launched at a heady rate, it was just possible to keep…
Today’s criminals are, on the surface, quite a lazy bunch – after all, now they commit their crimes without even leaving their own homes. Sadly however, for anyone who has fallen victim to cyber-crime you’ll be well-aware of just how smart and technologically sophisticated this new generation of criminals has become. Individuals may believe that…
Project discovery workshops, most reading this article will be familiar with the term and what generally takes place during them and therefore why they are so critically important to the success (or failure) of a software development project. The way we go about them at Arrk follows our defined and flexible EmbArrk methodology, which means we…
Most if not all companies believe themselves to be customer-centric, but there is often a disparity between the self-perception and the reality. It is easy to hang pithy slogans on the office walls – delivering on these values is a much greater challenge. Customer-Centricity is a Mindset First It is important to understand the difference…
A question that rages within a tester’s mind often is whether her creative and exploratory skills alone are enough for manual testing (or ‘Sapience testing’ as James Bach calls it, giving the profession some respectability) or should she venture into the ‘technical’ side as well, supposedly the domain of the developer. A smart tester will…
For many, the word “algorithm” brings back memories of mathematics classes we didn’t pay attention to as we put the term in the same “I’ll never actually need to use this” category as quadratic equations and standard deviation. However, the reality is that if you’re in business algorithms are all around you – and how…
Imagine you’ve got a business that relies on multiple websites all of which are similar in terms of their basic functionality but have some general differences too – perhaps in their layout, for example. You could, of course, copy and paste lots of code, assign it with different name spaces and set it for each…
Fragile is a kangaroo word. Within the Fragile ‘pouch’ is agile and the two words in a literal sense may not be seen at odds with each other. However within the software development world, we can use the kangaroo word to tell a ruminative story or two and even draw meaningful insights Note: The two…
The concept of offshoring is well-established in both manufacturing and in certain niche services sectors such as software development. An organisation, usually in a bid to improve its competitive advantage, looks to move elements of its business or business processes away from its core operating geography into another territory. In doing so the aim is…
“Be the change you want to see in the world” Mahatma Gandhi These words mean much to us and they have unconsciously driven us to work towards a successful transition from the waterfall to the agile testing world. This article contains our collective thoughts about the journey that we went through, what was entailed, the…
Ever wondered how to define the role of the CIO? According to Wikipedia, the job title Chief Information Officer (CIO) is exactly the same as an IT director or a Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO). It is a job, it states: “commonly given to the most senior executive in a company responsible for the information…
This immersive research activity requires the researcher to become involved with the activity, rather than just observing. Developed as a technique for better understanding the mind of the customer, ethnography is used at Arrk to gain a better understanding of the customer’s needs, wants and desires. Asking customers how they feel about a product or service, why…
Containerisation has become one of the hottest terms in IT innovation. However, what does it actually mean and what can it do for your business? In this guide to containerisation we explain its advantages and other essentials that you should know. What exactly are containers and what is the point of them? The idea behind…
There are a host of new challenges facing the digital sphere – from the need for faster integrated business cycles, to increased calls for cross-silo capabilities, all the way through to the ever growing number of risks such as the potential for confidentiality and regulatory breaches. So how do we address these digital challenges? The…
The architectural landscape has radically changed in the last ten years, with a move to rapid and lean development practices, continuous delivery, flexible and scalable systems, continuous integration, and cloud hosting. Organisations are focusing on replacing their legacy systems to help provide a competitive advantage through; Improving performance Upgraded security Reducing maintenance costs Utilising flexible…
Jaikishen Sharma, aged 32 is a budding software tester working for an IT startup, with a penchant for experimentation. He innovates not only at work but also in life. He started out working as Business Analyst but being an explorer at heart, he found his true calling in software testing. He’s known in his organization…
TechmArrk™ is a rapid, adaptable and collaborative software architecture review. The process is lightweight, time-boxed and iterative; incorporating regular stand-up calls to review findings and priorities. The review concludes with a comprehensive report, complete with findings, recommendations, and time-bound action points. Tailored to the specifics of the organisation, budget and the level of detail required, TechmArrk™…
TechmArrk™ is a rapid, adaptable and collaborative software architecture review. The process is lightweight, time-boxed and iterative; incorporating regular stand-up calls to review findings and priorities. The review concludes with a comprehensive report, complete with findings, recommendations, and time-bound action points. Tailored to the specifics of the organisation, budget and the level of detail required, TechmArrk™…
TechmArrk™ is a rapid, adaptable and collaborative software architecture review. The process is lightweight, time-boxed and iterative; incorporating regular stand-up calls to review findings and priorities. The review concludes with a comprehensive report, complete with findings, recommendations, and time-bound action points. Tailored to the specifics of the organisation, budget and the level of detail required, TechmArrk™…
Business analytics has come a long way during 2016. From the exclusive property of analysts to something that’s now easily accessible to all business users, analytics is developing rapidly and so, as we approach the halfway point in the year, we thought we’d take a look at our own seventh heaven of the latest trends…
You may remember the Y2K problem, also known as the millennium bug. It was a big deal towards the end of the last century, generating hundreds of apocalyptic headlines across the globe with scare stories about aeroplanes falling out of the sky, major computer systems failing and basically bringing about the end of the world…
Any keen followers of US research company Gartner will know all about bimodal IT, the practise of managing two coherent but separate modes of IT delivery. The first relies on the traditional development of applications with proven techniques. This can be safe and predictable but also potentially expensive and time consuming. The second is non-hierarchical…
Bimodal IT – it’s one of the latest Gartner-oriented buzzwords that has found its way into the vernacular of developers worldwide. However, what does it actually mean and how can it be applied to your business? In this guide to bimodal IT we will examine not only its definition but the key stages to making…
Things have really changed in the software development arena over the last few years. You don’t have to look back too far to remember a time when system development meant asking a programmer to write some code in order to carry out a procedure or resolve an issue. However, now times have changed. These days…
Remember our digital predictions for 2016 (see Digital Predictions 2016 – What Will Happen in 2016)? Well, at least one of them has proven we’re not too shabby with our crystal ball – although we will admit that this one was pretty clear for all to see. The prediction in question was a surge in…
Remember when websites relied on pop-ads to reel in income? Those days are disappearing quickly with PageFair and Adobe revealing that during 2015 ad-blockers were estimated to have cost online publishers in the region of $22 billion. It seems that some website owners have got desperate too: with some even going as far as to…
Software made easy – it sounds quite appealing, doesn’t it? In reality there are few novices that can wrap their head around the complexities of many software development concepts: however, if they are ever going to do so then you can bet it will be with lightweight software development. That’s because the idea of lightweight…
Arrk Group helps International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of World Bank Group, stimulate the development and construction of new resource-efficient buildings across the globe. EDGE is a web application for construction developers, which provides fast, online access to comprehensive green information, approved auditors and certified accreditation. Customer International Finance Corporation (IFC) is part of World…
We are delighted to announce that Arrk Group has been confirmed on the forthcoming Digital Outcomes and Specialists (DOS) Framework, which is set to go live from the middle of April 2016. The new framework replaces the existing Digital Services 2 framework with the DOS framework sitting alongside existing G-Cloud and Crown Hosting on the…
There is a new technological wave that is helping retailers stay ahead of trends and its name is machine learning. A method of data analysis, it works on the premise that the more a company uses informative data to make decisions, the more it will lead to both productivity and profitability advantages. However, just what…
When outlining her “five big things” for 2016, Nikki Baird, of Forbes, outlined how retailers will look increasingly towards apps, after previously, in many cases, adopting the attitude that they are broadly the same as mobile-friendly websites. So what is going to prompt this change? According to Baird, developers are re-imagining the capabilities of apps…
The financial services industry is undergoing something of an evolution as the technology that kick-started bitcoin looks set to transform the way in which banks manage their transactions. The technology in question is known as blockchain and in this blockchain technology guide we explain how it works and the impact it could have. What exactly…
Today it is a well accepted fact that frequent releases of applications is an absolute must for customer feedback/acceptance and for gaining valuable competitive advantage. With Agile development becoming the default methodology for software development projects, the demand for continuous regression testing (being an integral part of continuous integration) is in the ascendancy. However, organisations cannot…
Have you ever tried arranging and rearranging the furniture in your home until the time you and your family think it is perfect? No doubt you would have had discussions with your spouse, identified open spaces, the existent / non-existent furniture items and so on. Maybe you have been through the process of shortlisting a…
At Arrk, automated visual tests complement automated functional tests, where the automated visual test framework is an extension of functional automation framework with additional components including image comparison library and wrapper component. As testing requirements become more complex due to the plethora of browsers, browser versions, devices and display sizes, the only cost effective way…
Accessibility testing is a type of testing designed to determine whether individuals with disabilities are able to use an application, which could be software, hardware, or some other type of product or service. Similar to usability testing, in that the product or service is tested to ensure it is easy for its intended audience to…
Vital to the success of any web application is in how it performs in its intended environment; performance and capacity issues have a detrimental and long-lasting impact, whether directly through the loss of revenue or costly remedial action to indirect impacts such as the damage it can do a brand and the negative perceptions a…
Compatibility Testing at Arrk is all about ensuring a web application operates as expected and consistently within its intended environment. Testing web applications across browsers is a highly complex and hugely challenging task, more so given the expectation of a consistent experience for the end-user regardless of hardware, browser, browser versions, screen resolution, network speed…
Over recent years Software Testing has undergone a seismic shift in methodology and focus. Gone is the era of software testing and testers living in their own silo, creating and executing reams of tests, performed by scores of humans across various cycles before the application was deemed ready for release. This old school way of…
Code reviews have moved from a time-intensive, low-impact paper-based technique to a powerful and efficient tool as part of modern software engineering. This article explores the history and basics of code reviews, to see how the code review sits within a high-performing software engineering team and explores what techniques we can use to maximise their…
In business, we often focus on attracting new customers. Whether it’s exciting introductory offers; huge promotional campaigns; or discount codes; we’re always thinking about bringing customers in. However, if we can’t offer them a service that they are satisfied with, or another company offers an even better deal a few months later, chances are we…
According to Social Trends, by 2020, so-called “millennials” will be in control of $1.4trillion of spending power: making it absolutely vital to understand this audience, how it thinks and what it wants. So just how are consumer behaviours changing as millennials become the central audience – and what can you do to connect with them? Hang…
A New Year has arrived and now that the fireworks have disappeared and everyone is back at work, it’s time for Arrk to deliver its annual digital predictions for the year ahead. If you want to see how we fared last year, then you can look back at our Digital Predictions for 2015 – but now,…
The increasing acceptance and implementation of Lean principles by software companies is becoming a phenomenon. Whether these principles are introduced as values, guidelines or via the book, it can make a significant impact to individuals, teams and organisations. We are hearing (as well as being involved in) more and more examples of Lean implementation, often…
Ruby on Rails: it sounds like a new cocktail, doesn’t it? In reality however, it’s a web application framework that is rapidly growing in popularity by providing a fun, elegant and compact way to build web applications. To put it in simple terms, Ruby on Rails, often abbreviated to just Rails, is a fun and…
As the web proliferates and we interact with it in numerous ways, we need to be aware of the importance technology plays in satisfying human needs when interacting with a web application. There is another aspect that we perhaps do not pay as much attention to which is the psychology or the mind-play that happens…
The pressure is on companies to become real-time businesses with a host of trends throughout the software industry focusing on the reaction capabilities of firms. This ranges from feedback and monitoring to built-in testing and continuous integration. Now, as organisations attempt to discover what these changes will mean in the long term, they often discover…
Described in The Globe and Mail as “the stupidest business concept of all time”, fail fast, fail often may be seen as a fast-track to bankruptcy among those who haven’t grasped the notion. However, among many leading start-ups and innovators, the idea is that business failure can be a good thing as long as you…
Agile is pretty much the way software is built and delivered today. Agile is about iterative development with quick feedback loops and making use of Agile engineering practices like Test Driven Development, Continuous Integration, Refactoring etc. Agile is also about happy, empowered growth mindset wielding employees. The challenges in staffing an Agile-inspired organisation, in addition to…
Imagine starting a business without examining the market first; or hiring a new employee without carrying out an interview. Both scenarios seem almost unthinkable: yet, a host of organisations are still launching their digital projects while overlooking the discovery phase. Chances are, if you’ve had a project that’s gone awry, you can trace the root…
Developed back in 2003, test driven development (TDD), also known as test design development, creates an evolutionary approach to development centring on test-first implementations in which you write the minimum amount of production code that will allow you to then fulfill that test and carry out refactoring. Generally, the ultimate goal of test driven development…
During the days when waterfall methodology was in vogue, Non-functional Requirements (NFR) testing was generally the last step before application delivery. For the testers, the entire application offered a complete view of application to test NFRs elicited by the analysts from the business stakeholders. But changes caused by incomplete/inadequately developed NFRs are potential large fixes,…
The core elements of being Agile are the spirit of ongoing collaboration, self-management and empowerment of the team to achieve product development goals. The same can be derived from the lean philosophy of software development i.e. one of its seven principles (i.e. Empower the team) strongly advocates empowering the people within the team. Studies show…
It was back in September, 2014, when cloud security was placed under the microscope following a breach of Apple’s internet storage service. Many celebrities, including the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, had intimate photographs stolen from the iCloud, prompting Apple to introduce a two-step verification service. However, many may wonder: if celebrities can have their security…
There is a lot to be said for loyalty in life: but applying this loyalty to an outdated system could be holding your organisation back. A new term has been coined – legacy systems – which refers to systems that have been operating in production for a long time. For many organisations, the services they offer…
“Personalised marketing at scale” – it sounds like just another buzz term, but in reality it has already become the fastest-growing digital marketing trend and is set to represent a new approach that will transform the way that companies approach the media. However, in reality digital personalisation is much more than that: with chances are…
Back in April 2015 the world’s most popular search engine Google started to roll out its latest major algorithm update for its core search service. Dubbed ‘Mobilegeddon’ in some quarters, the update was first officially confirmed by Google in late February on its central webmaster blog. As with all major algorithm updates, the ramifications for…
With the release date for Microsoft Windows 10 rapidly approaching, excitement is at a fever pitch about what the operating system will have to offer: especially after Microsoft described it as the “last edition of Windows”. Here we take a look at what to expect from Microsoft Windows 10, including Microsoft Build 2015. What will…
In the consumer environment, market research has become a vital part of the success of any firm. Knowing what consumers want, what they require from their experience and how to grab their interest over competitors is essential in staying ahead of the marketplace. So why not apply the same philosophy to software systems, websites and…
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform offering IaaS and PaaS services. As with other cloud computing platforms on the market, Azure is designed to be highly flexible and scalable with the ability to integration it with existing infrastructure easily. Offering a number of solutions for customers, the goal of this white paper is to explore…
If you’re searching for a way to develop cohesive software in a faster way, then the solution might be continuous integration: a software development practise which revolves around each team member frequently integrating their work, sometimes several times on a daily basis. In this continuous integration guide we take a closer look at how it…
Unobtrusive and relatively low cost, a beacon (or iBeacon when using Apple nomenclature) is a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) device which contains its own battery unit which means they can be positioned pretty much anywhere. Although there are a variety of different beacons available, the most common flavour is when used in conjunction with a bluetooth…
The phrase “there’s an app for that” has been well-established among consumers for years – we’re accustomed to the idea of being able to download an app for almost any purpose, leading to buzz terms like “the appification of everything” and the “appification of the web”. However, now this concept has spread to enterprise applications.…
With business environments rapidly changing, there is a need for companies to respond as quickly as possible to competition and new opportunities. This means that organisations have a “need for speed”: with the aim to get a digital service on to the market that can help build momentum and offer real value to stakeholders and the…
We helped Camden Council develop and deploy a new waste and recycling digital service to its 225,000 residents. The engagement commenced with an intensive two-week EmbArrk™ workshop followed by a fixed term development project soon after. The service was delivered on-time and to Camden Council’s satisfaction using our Rapid Digitisation service. Key Benefits Two week EmbArrk™ workshop captures…
The Internet of Things (which we explained here with our Beginner’s Guide to the Internet of Things) is drawing the attention of some big names, with Qualcomm recently announcing its plans to develop smart devices that suit this new technology. Now, Google has followed suit by developing the Google Brillo operating system. So what can…
A long, long time ago, when the Earth was still young, an innocent computer science graduate entered a castle, looking for work. The castle’s occupants were kind and took him in. Surrounded by experienced analysts, designers, programmers and testers, he developed his skills and flourished for a number of years; gaining a reputation for answering difficult questions…
Rapid Digitisation Service is an unique approach to developing digital services and delivers new, easy to use and engaging digital products in a matter of weeks. Incorporating an initial EmbArrk™ project scoping period, followed by an intensive Agile development period through to User Acceptance Testing and deployment, a typical Rapid Digitisation Service cycle lasts between…
Digital solutions should improve people’s lives. They should save time, save money and produce better outcomes for end users. To achieve this, it is critically important that customers are willing to use a digital service, and that they find it intuitive, speedy and accessible. This means that investment has been well employed and that customers’…
In the crowded world of software architecture, yet another new name has emerged in recent years: in the form of microservices. Microservices architecture is a new approach to developing a single application by using a combination of small services – each with its own process and the ability to communicate using lightweight mechanisms. The idea…
It may seem like an odd combination: applying a Transport for London concept to your business. However, red routes in London have more in common with the way we work than you may think. Here we take a look at the theory of red routes and how they can be applied to your business and…
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, “has the potential to change everything.” That was the sweeping statement made by a former ship engineer in an interview with Forbes back in 2012. Three years on, if you’re not buying into the magnitude of 3D printing yet, then you’re simply not thinking big enough. 3D printing…
Described as “driving innovation inside many, if not most, enterprises” by Vince Kellen in the Cutter IT Journal, social, mobile, analytics, cloud (SMAC) represents a bundle of new technologies that is rapidly replacing basic messaging and communication services, as well as network infrastructures and ERP. It brings a new dimension to business models by making…
If you want fast functionality from your software, then feature driven development (FDD) could be the key. Feature driven development revolves around quick development cycles and provides businesses with feature-rich systems because they are constantly developing. What is the history of feature driven development? The idea of FDD was created by Jeff Luca in 1997…
Team Dynamics is a hugely important part of putting together and managing high performing software engineering teams. It can sometimes be de-prioritised however and in some extreme instances, completely forgotten under the pressures of working with stringent timelines and deliverables. It must be recognized that team dynamics, whether subtle or explicit, plays a decisive role…
Bespoke or off the shelf software: depending on the depth of your knowledge about software and how to run it for your organisation or business, it may seem like an obvious choice because whereas off the shelf packages are run by millions of users, bespoke can be customised based on your individual needs. However, the…
Today, as much as Agile is scoring over traditional methodologies like Waterfall, the customer demand for fixed bid (AKA fixed price) projects has not died down. Even though Agile significantly improves its success quotient due to improved communication/collaboration, rapid feedback, enhanced flexibility in managing changes, etc., Agile sceptics point to problems. Problems such as project scope…
The importance of marketing to the success of a business should never be underestimated. Marketers have a unique position in that they are talking directly to consumers and gaining insights that help create discussion and trail-blaze new solutions that can guide a company’s future. Take for example, the case of Nokia and Apple. Long before…
Better public services that are more integrated and readily available than ever before. That’s the manifesto behind the Government’s decision to digitalise public services in the UK. However, is it really working? In this introduction to digital public services in the UK, we examine what’s gone digital so far and what you can expect in…
Wearable technology, wearable devices, fashion electronics or tech togs: give it whatever name you want, but there is little doubt wearables have broken through as the next big thing in the technological sphere. With the Wearable Technology Show 2015 looming – it will take place in London on March 10-15 and is set to be…
Seen by some as the middle ground between offering all computer services on premises and offloading all of your computational and storage time to a cloud, hybrid clouds are rapidly gaining ground in the business world. However, just what is the hybrid cloud and is it right for your company? Hybrid cloud computing: What is…
Arrk Group has been confirmed as a G Cloud 6 service suppler by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and now offers all UK public sector organisations an expanded range of services available on the framework agreement. Already approved to provide Specialist Cloud Services (SCS) under the previous G-Cloud iteration, the software engineering company has significantly…
There is big talk about big data, but do you actually understand it and what it could do for your business? In this guide to big data analytics we take a closer look at the concept and explain how companies can integrate it with traditional data management to enjoy real benefits. Big data: Definition So…
Take a trip to your favourite retail store in 2015 and you might just notice several discrete iBeacon devices dotted around the shop’s walls, these micro-location gizmos are promising to usher in a new way of shopping on the high street. In this article we aren’t going to cover exactly what iBeacons are, you can head…
Open source software may be a buzz term in the technological sphere, but the concept is one with a rich history that pre-dates the internet and even the personal computer. For example, it was back in 1911 that Henry Ford won a challenge to the Selden patent: presenting a cross licensing agreement between US automakers…
If you think that gamification is just another short-lived “term of the month”, then think again: according to predictions by Gartner, in 2015, gamification services will be just as important for consumer marketing and retention as the likes of eBay, Amazon and Facebook. But just what is gamification? In this gamification guide we examine the…
Anyone who has been searching for more information about lean software development will have almost certainly been met by more difficult jargon, such as: lean principles; lean manufacturing; and Agile software development. So if you’re struggling to get your head around what this idea is all about, we’re going to attempt to simplify it for…
It’s the time of year when everybody turns into Nostradamus and makes predictions about the future: and here at Arrk we’re no exception. Except, when it comes to predicting the digital trends for 2015, we like to think we’re a little bolder than most. We’re not going to make straightforward predictions like “content will be…
Inevitably there comes a time in any testing cycle when some team members and even whole teams experience a slackening off of their workload. This can happen when testers are awaiting the project to start or when development is delayed on a project impacting start of testing or a bug-laden release needs development team’s remedial attention…
There is plenty of jargon related to the internet, but one that has broken into the mainstream as potentially one of the most important terms for the way we live and communicate in the future is: the internet of things (IoT). Here we offer a beginner’s guide to the internet of things, including examples. Internet…
The way we shop has changed dramatically over the last decade with the explosion of online retailers and daily deal websites: and now it is enjoying its latest revolution in the form of iBeacon technology. Labelled by Apple as a “new class of low-powered, low cost transmitters that can notify iOS 7 devices of their…
Adopting and implementing a digital transformation strategy is now an imperative. Enterprises and organisations of all sizes and types are seizing the initiative, as the brisk winds of digital change blow through international markets. This white paper sets out the latest thinking on how companies and organisations can best harness the power of digital transformation,…
It’s a phrase that’s being thrown around by the UK Government: but what exactly does ‘digital by default’ mean? The definition is not immediately clear, but here with our digital by default guide we examine what it’s all about and what it could mean for your business. So what does digital by default mean? According…
The business world is changing rapidly but few innovations have had such an immediate impact as the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. Also known as Bring Your Own Phone (BYOP), Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) and Bring Your Own PC (BYOPC), this policy permits employees to bring personal devices, including smart phones, laptops and…
During the discovery phase of any software development project here at Arrk Group, the team involved asks itself a standard series of questions, aimed at determining the best Agile methodology to adopt. There are numerous Agile methodologies which can be used and from an implementation point of view, each methodology prescribes some specific practices to deliver…
At Arrk Group we use a variety of tools to assist the team when testing web-based applications. One such tool, or more specifically a suite of tools, is Selenium. We aren’t alone in using it either, thanks to it being open source and incredibly useful it is one of the most popular tools for automating…
It is often said that usability testing is a necessary evil of software development, it is said by some to disrupt the development process whereas others find it takes too much work to properly instigate. What is often forgotten is that there is tremendous value in observing real users working and interacting with an application, prior…
Premium Credit is owned by Cinven, a leading international private equity firm. Cinven has extensive experience acquiring successful companies and helping them grow and develop. Arrk Group helped increase Premium Credit’s competitiveness by designing, building and deploying a large-scale, secure digital customer acquisition platform. The highly scalable digital platform has reduced the time taken to process…
EmbArrk™ is a structured yet flexible framework which helps organisations to rapidly scope an IT development project or program and brings focus and direction to any new digital initiative. Ideal for projects where no hard specification exists and run as a workshop, EmbArrk™ is held at a location preferable to the customer and can cover a period…
EmbArrk™ is a structured yet flexible framework which helps organisations to rapidly scope an IT development project or program and brings focus and direction to any new digital initiative. Ideal for projects where no hard specification exists and run as a workshop, EmbArrk™ is held at a location preferable to the customer and can cover a period…
EmbArrk™ is a structured yet flexible framework which helps organisations to rapidly scope an IT development project or program and brings focus and direction to any new digital initiative. Ideal for projects where no hard specification exists and run as a workshop, EmbArrk™ is held at a location preferable to the customer and can cover a period…
At Arrk Group we place a great deal of emphasis on team-driven research and development, through our SpArrk Community programme. The Internet of Things, or IoT, is one such area where we engage with our communities to develop new concepts and ideas. What does Internet of Things mean? Simply put the Internet of Things, known…
Arrk Group has helped the National Union of Students, a not-for-profit organisation, enhance its student union membership experience with the development and launch of UnionCloud, its award-winning cloud-based membership management platform. The digital platform, awarded The Times’ Higher Education Awards ICT Initiative of the Year in 2013, provides all the functions a student union requires to operate,…
While authoring an application for the iOS platform is relatively straightforward and can incorporate the use of a variety of web-based skills, such as HTML or JavaScript, combined with a third party framework such as Titanium or Phonegap. Issues can emerge when the bundled application is uploaded to Apple App Store. As a result, Arrk…
Arrk Group is delighted to announce it has been approved to provide specialist cloud services (SCS) under the UK Government’s new G-Cloud 5 framework. The approval means that any UK public body, including all government departments and local authorities, can procure Arrk Group services through CloudStore. Cloudstore is an online marketplace where public sector organisations…
A major transatlantic airline needed to digitise services being used by customers, call centre and check-in agents. Everything from flight booking, check-in, seat reservations, meal and special requests, loyalty points redemption and complaints were part of the requirement. Arrk Group alongside strategic partner KCOM worked collaboratively with the airline to deliver a digital shared services architecture…
Here at Arrk Group we have adopted Scrumban methodologies over Scrum and other alternative development methodologies. Let’s take a look why we did, what we did and importantly what have been the benefits. Scrum and Kanban Since Agile was first conceived, many development methodologies have evolved; Scrum, XP, DSDM, RUP, Kanban, Lean to name a…
The Arrk Group team has a wide range of multinational and multi-discipline experience. Senior management is split between the UK and India and this enables us to provide the best support for our customers and direction for all Arrk team members. Julian Howison | Chairman An electronics engineer by training, Julian started his career developing…
Delivering service excellence and delighting our Customers is Arrk Group’s number one goal and by focusing on our customers’ needs we believe that success in other areas follows. A desire to constantly exceed our Customers’ expectations underlies all of Arrk’s decision-making processes. We are constantly seeking new ways in which we can increase the value of…
Way back in 2003, Arrk Group’s Executive Chairman Julian Howison was quoted in Computer Weekly (a June 24th article concerning the future impact of offshore on UK IT Services market) saying that when it comes to the offshoring of software development and support, “UK companies have no choice”. He said that for UK IT companies…
The devil makes work for idle hands – or so the saying goes. Nowadays however, getting ‘hacked’ has become far more than being infiltrated by a bored bedroom geek. Indeed, cyber crime is now such big business that it attracts real technical entrepreneurs chasing the promise of serious payback – either directly through fraudulent activity,…
There are a number of problems inherent in the traditional ‘direct’ offshore engagement model where a UK Customer contracts directly with an offshore supplier. These are typically driven by the offshore supplier’s lack of UK domain knowledge, limited capability in effective Customer engagement, inadequate delivery management capability, differences in language, culture, time and distance and…
Now, more than ever, IT management must perform the tricky task of delivering more, faster and for less. A generation of users accustomed to always-on internet applications like Google and Amazon makes meeting customer demands harder, while business units want IT to be more nimble and able to create new functionality more rapidly. In an…
Virgin Money is the financial services arm of the well known Virgin Group, headed by Richard Branson. The Group launched a not-for-profit organisation called Virgin Money Giving to support their sponsorship of The London Marathon 2010 and for future charity fundraising events. Virgin Money Giving needed an online solution which offered fundraisers and charities the ability…
Here’s a question. What’s your business’ greatest asset? You’ll probably say your staff – after all, without them you wouldn’t have a business at all, right? But do you know which staff are your most valuable? Which ones do you depend on to actually create your products – the ones that have the knowledge to…
Over the last five years or so, there has been rapid evolution in the number of technologies that promise to disrupt established ways of doing business and mean that all organisations driving new initiatives should always take a Digital First approach. Evolution in mobile, social media, cloud and big data are revolutionising the way consumers interact with…
Testing applications which utilise Web Browsers is becoming increasing more complex. In the early 1990s, successful testing with a copy of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape meant that you could be confident that the vast majority of users would be able to reliably access your application. Multiple browsers from many different providers are now in…
So you have successfully completed a sprint with a majority of your deliverables accepted by your customers. What do you do next? It’s that point in time when you are ready to begin with your next adventure but only after that final campfire where you can look back at the sweet (and not so sweet)…
The Sprint Retrospective ceremony is one of the most important ceremonies for a scrum team as this is the time when the team reviews the sprint, ways of working, existing processes and comes up with improvements/actions which will help them in becoming more productive and successful. When we started scrum, we followed the What went…
How many deliverables should we commit to our customers in say the next two weeks? An intriguing question asked by many agile teams at the beginning of every iteration. The answer to this question depends largely on the team’s thinking, philosophy and skills – which unfortunately cannot be measured. Then how do we forecast the…
In our previous post we wrote about the testing challenges faced in ensuring predictability and consistency of web application behaviour across different browsers and their versions as employed on desktops or devices driven by one of several operating systems. In this post we will discuss how we can resolve or minimize this problem by adopting…
Work agreements are the set of rules/disciplines/processes the team agrees to follow without fail to make themselves more efficient and become self managing aspect of scrum. These agreements help the team build a shared understanding of what it means to work as a team. Who sets the work agreements? Team members themselves set the work…
In the world of increasing risk of money laundering and terrorist financing, regulators are becoming more strict and persuasive about how financial institutions are internally managing the risk. For the small and medium size companies cost of implementing compliance solution is always a concern. This paper outlines the standard practices to implement solutions for Anti…
Barbour ABI, a subsidiary of United Business Media (UBM), is the UK market leader in the provision of construction industry market intelligence. It provides information on the profile and status of major construction projects to many of the top construction companies, sub-contractors, building suppliers, architects and surveyors throughout the UK. Traditionally ABI supplied this information through…
Lex Vehicle Leasing is one of the UK’s leading vehicle leasing companies offering its services both directly and as an outsourced white-label service to other leasing companies, financial institutions and vehicle manufacturers. It wanted to leapfrog its competition by replacing its existing fragmented online presence with a single integrated solution which provided its customers with a…
Arrk Group is responsible for the development and support of the RAC’s entire web presence including one of the most well-known and highly visited websites in the UK The RAC wanted its websites to provide a compelling experience that is so content rich and easy to use that customers return on a regular basis and…
Arrk Group focuses on delivering tremendous value to its customers. This is in contrast to some IT service providers which focus efforts on taking value rather than providing value. Instead, we work in a way that emphasises business goals, open communication and collaborative team working. Our transparent engagement style and obsession with exceeding our Customer’s…
We aim to consistently deliver results to our Customers that exceed their expectations. We call this ‘Real Quality’; quality that is experienced and valued by our Customers and targeted on the things that matter most to them. Achieving this is a continual process of listening to our Customers, learning from our experiences and optimising the…
At Arrk Group we believe that imagination, and the innovations born from imagination, drive continual optimisation of our services and provide competitive advantage to our Customers. At Arrk Group innovation is not limited to the technical domain, or the sole preserve of Research and Development. It is the creative potential of each of our people,…
IT Services have gone global and every serious IT services player has a ‘global delivery model’. Terms like near-shore, far-shore, multi-shore, right-shore, best-shore litter sales collateral; everyone has a ‘high quality Offshore Delivery Centre’; everyone is ‘globally integrated’. The picture is of a market that has matured into a level playing field, where global sourcing…
Consultancy Services Arrk Group’s consultancy team provides practical advice and hands-on support to enable Customers to derive better value from their IT investments. Our team has a particular expertise in: Digital Strategy Development Rapid Digitisation Delivery Globally Distributed Software Teams Optimisation Our services include business analysis and digital strategy, project and programme management, change management,…
Our operations do not exist in a vacuum, therefore at Arrk Group we encourage and set high standards of corporate social responsibility. The communities to which we belong, both as individuals and as an organisation, support us in many ways. This support confers on us a duty to behave as a ‘responsible citizen’ and as part of…
When Arrk first started way back in 1998 the development of sophisticated, enterprise strength digital products and services using ultra-distributed teams was, to say the least, uncharted waters. Not that that stopped us from trying ! Our very first project was a large-scale online digital marketplace built using Oracle and Sun technologies. Sadly, the dot.com…
Our people are our business and we have developed an extremely talented and dedicated team whose depth and range of experience managing global IT services is simply Tier-1. In India where nearly 63% of IT professionals have less than five years of work experience our average Arrkitect has worked in software services for over six…
Arrk Group was founded on a desire to create a business that challenged the traditional values, behaviours and attitudes of many of the established consultancies and IT service companies. Most of the senior people at Arrk have been buyers of these services at one time or another and there was a general level of frustration…
We combine flexible Agile engineering practices and expertise in leading technology with a value-driven pragmatism and deliver as fast as possible using distributed development teams. Our approach ensures we deliver on time and with the highest levels of quality and predictability and we build long-lasting, flexible applications. The systems we build typically need to be…
Advances in mobile technology are now providing opportunities for organisations to connect more people into enterprise wide applications. Faster wireless networks, broader coverage, increasingly powerful devices, different input technologies and state-of-the-art development tools have all contributed to the mobile revolution currently in progress. Arrk Group is actively involved in developing and supporting practical mobile solutions…
Our digital platform development expertise is the result of implementing effective and robust e-business solutions and associated web technologies since 1998. Arrk Group has successfully partnered with some of the UK’s premium financial services, media, telecoms, not-for-profit and technology organisations to launch highly successful e-service and e-sales channels. Enabling our Customers to achieve their organisational goals and objectives. As web…
At Arrk Group we describe ourselves as a ‘values driven business’. Unlike some organisations our success is measured by the delivery of our values. These values drive and govern Arrk Group’s philosophy behind its operations. Creativity and innovation for the benefit of the Customer We believe that to succeed we must embrace change, take creative and…
DevOps has been an industry buzz-word for a while now and has left many people confused about its meaning and worth. Is it only about Development and Operations? Is it a thought process, a rule-set, a mind-set or a mix of all? What will be gained by adopting DevOps? What do I need to know…
April 2016 Update: Smart421 is now known as KCOM Building on their already long standing, established relationship, Smart421 and Arrk Group are delighted to announce the formation of a strategic partnership aimed at providing customers with a suite of tightly integrated consultancy, service management and application development services that combine Smart421’s mission critical service management,…
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