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Apps & Software

custom software hero Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

In a multi-cloud enabled fast development time when digital services define the organizations they create, the WTE development team uses tools such as Microsoft.Net, ASP.Net, Structured Querry Language (SQL), and open-source code. In addition, we work with integration partners such as Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and VMware to create custom software to meet our customers' unique and evolving needs.


Cloud Changes Everything

Google cloud image

As shared in our How the Cloud Changes Your Everything (link), everything from how we write code to the almost simultaneous cloud-to-cloud backups we deploy is different, faster, cheaper, and more efficient thanks to cloud computing. These days who needs a physical computer? 

Virtualization creates virtual computers that behave like physical machines. Why store or run applications from your laptop's limited space when, thanks to virtualization, applications, and file storage can come from servers from data centers worldwide? Cloud computing's accessibility, freedom, and efficiency benefits are extensive, and the trend isn't slowing. 

Saying "The Cloud" is a misnomer. WTE partners with and uses "clouds" from AmazonGoogle, and Microsoft. Servers from these leading tech companies and others create a robust network of cloud computing that is changing the world. With Smart Homes and the Internet of Things (IoT) on our near horizon, the cloud's nascent changes promise an exciting future. 

Before our connected future arrives, we've seen four ways the cloud changes software development and technology. And, yes, there are new acronyms. But, of course, there will always be new acronyms.

  • Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

    SaaS applications are hosted on cloud servers and accessed via the Internet instead of people installing software on their computers. Adobe cloud, Slack, and Microsoft 365 are examples of popular SaaS applications.

  • Platform-as-a-service (PaaS)

    The development tools, database infrastructure, and operating systems customers rent from PaaS providers help companies build their applications. Azure and Force.com application tools are common, and technologies we ourselves use. 

  • Saas/PaaS Hybrids

    WTE’s AgileSite and AgileSite Lite business website technologies and our PointShop Enterprise ecommerce solution are actually combinations of Software-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service. Through our partnership with Umbraco Cloud, for instance, we use Umbraco’s software and development tools to control codebases and direct access to databases to build websites that can do more.

  • Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

    To build applications and custom software, WTE rents servers and databases from several cloud providers, including Google Compute Engine and OpenStack. IaaS is leasing land where you can build whatever you want, but you must provide your own building equipment and materials. We use these as tools to create custom solutions for clients. 

  • Function-as-a-Service (FaaS)

    Faas, sometimes called serverless computing, breaks cloud applications into small components that only run or incur costs when needed or used. For example, the pay-as-you-use model used by AWS Lamda, Google Cloud Functions, and Microsoft Asure Functions is similar to only paying rent for your kitchen, bathroom, or living room when you are cooking, showering, or watching TV.  

What Is Custom Software?

services-customsoftware-umbraco.pngLong ago and far away, custom software was easier to define, describe, and create. In a multi-cloud enabled fast development time, custom software is creative combinations of code, Applications Program Interfaces (APIs) from integration partners such as Kentico or Umbraco, microservices, and web applications. When more than half of the web's traffic comes from smartphones, everything becomes an app. We would go a little further and say everything is a combination of apps.

We built it, our first website, more than twenty-five years ago, and they came. When we made our first website, presence meant success. Now, when everyone has a website presence means nothing. Today's battle is to create unique experiences, share authentic stories, and win customer hearts, minds, and loyalty. When anyone can build a good, if not great, website, your company must create new ways to do the same things; others will use templates, tools, and canned approaches. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so make sure yours is unique, thrilling, and custom.

WTE's Custom Software

services-stool-200.pngFast beats slow online, so we take advantage of Applications Program Interfaces (APIs), microservices, and our twenty-five-year code archive to support our three-legged approach to rapid custom software development.

  • Lego-Like Code – we code in blocks with hooks to facilitate connection to other blocks or Applications Program Interfaces (APIs).   

  • Extreme Programming (XP) - we use Kent Beck’s pragmatic programming approach outlined in his book Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change. XP emphasizes business results and a get-something-started NOW while committing to continual testing and revisions to speed the development of new products, applications, and solutions.

  • Agile Software Development – develop new products in partnership with customers and end-users using self-organizing cross-functional teams.

Blue Oceans & Hot Sauce

services-custom-bos-book-sm.jpgWe recommend reading Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategies because if you know how and where to look; this is a time of abundance, profits, and unparalleled competitive advantage. When Cirque du Soleil changed two expensive things - animals and travel - they changed what "circus" means. When Guy Laliberté eliminated animals in favor of acrobats and asked people to come to him instead of the other way around, Cirque du Soleil created uncontested space. Since 1984 Laliberte's blue ocean "circus" continues to thrill audiences and his bankers. We've helped customers from your local church to Fortune 100 companies discover and fish blue oceans.

Does your custom software need to be more art or science? Can we combine things in artistic ways to achieve an order of magnitude result? How will we know our blue ocean when we sail across it? Since we probably haven't met yet, we don't know the answer to these and other questions we'll need to ask before learning how to cook together. No matter how much art or science your project requires, we recommend more hot sauce, always more hot sauce.

services-customsoftware-cholula-220.jpg

Ebill

WTE ExcellaPay ebill hero image

Customers expect to review, manage and pay their bills with smartphones, pads, and laptops. As a result, paper bills, statements, and invoices sent through the mail will soon be extinct. Seeing the trend toward ebills, we used knowledge gained from developing banks and ecommerce payment gateways and working with the ultra-secure Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) to influence healthcare companies to create ExcellaPay. In addition, we leveraged existing partnerships with PayPal Payflow ProAuthorize.net, and Verisign

With ExcellaPay, small-to-medium sized to Fortune 100 businesses can quickly, easily, and securely create professional invoices (ebills), bill customers online, track payments, and provide a professional online dashboard for customers and employees. 

ExcellaPay Integration

Thanks to our Lego-like code running on the cloud there is no expensive software to purchase, install, or maintain; reducing cost and enabling rapid deployment. With ExcellaPay platform it's easy to integrate business accounting software such as QuickBooks, Peachtree, FreshBooks, ZoHo and many others to automate collecting money from your clients. Your business accounting software becomes part of the ideal ebill picture. 

ExcellaPay Features

We used our knowledge from banks and healthcare to enhance ExcellaPay features.

Customizable and Integrated

  • Uses your company's branding.
  • Integration with Cybersource, Authorize.net, PayPal, and other gateways.
  • Integration with QuickBooks, Peachtree, FreshBooks, and other accounting software.
  • Easy to create specialized invoices and files.
  • Automated scheduled statements.
  • Flexible billing for products, services, hourly charges, NFTs, and more.

Ultra-Secure

  • Ultra-Secure technology platform modeled on banks and healthcare. 
  • Fully Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant.

Easy for employees and customers

  • Fast learning curves for customers and employees
  • Manage scheduled and recurring payments
  • Invoice aging and reconciliation reporting

IT Services

What is an IT Service?

In a digital-first future, defining what isn't an IT service is more straightforward because everything has an information technology component these days. For example, we were about to use driving a truck as an example of a non-IT service, but thanks to self-driving trucks and industrial robots, driving a truck has an IT component.

Every organization is now defined by the digital services it delivers. From engaging customers with new experiences to building new revenue opportunities and driving digital-first touchpoints that protect and enable customers and communities, these services have never been more essential.
- VMware Driving Digital Business whitepaper

WTE's IT services are interconnected. Let's examine something that used to be a bland commodity IT service – hosting websites. Hosting websites was a simple task, but hosting websites, in a rapid development cloud era brings novel security, resource utilization, and technical challenges.

The current cloud-enabled IT environment changes every WTE IT service from simple to complex where once easily purchased and understood commodities such as web hosting become convoluted, expensive value-added services where saving dollars may cost millions.

Changing how we think is the best solution; that's why we think of WTE IT services in the context of networks and platforms.

Networks & Platforms

We don’t think of database engineering in gigabytes anymore, nor do we think about “websites” much these days. Thanks to ubiquitous Application Program Interfaces (APIs), microservices, Lego-like code and increased social media influenced customer expectations for how they want to interact with brands most website we develop are platforms and communities.

The fundamental difference between a website and a digital platform lies in how you approach user engagement. Websites provide one-way engagement, with users ingesting the website’s content. Platforms create a reciprocal arrangement, with interactions between a platform and its users generating a personalized experience.

Websites rely on implied audience data capture, with users grouped into broad buckets. For example, if many people click on a particular article, the site will assume that most visitors are interested in that topic. This way, websites always work with and for the majority, not the individual.

By contrast, platforms use expressed data capture, where users provide identity information by registering and logging in. Once someone logs in, it is possible to learn about them from multiple touchpoints such as filling out forms, adding comments, participation in discussions and bookmarking content. By supplying a platform with real data, users get experiences tailored for them.
- OOMPHInc.com (emphasis ours)

Passive consumption is over thanks to social media’s pervasive influence where anything and everything becomes a sharable experience.  New businesses such as Tough Mudders where contestants squeeze under barbed wire and run through mud and established brands such as Red Bull, Nike, and Starbucks use platforms and shared experiences to convert visitors into loyal customers and contributors.

Platforms are more likely than websites to turn users into loyal customers and brand ambassadors. To get someone to be an advocate for your company, they need to get something in return. Websites are convenient but impersonal. Platforms, by contrast, provide a personal connection between a business and its audience.
- OOMPHInc.com

When everything is an app and those apps power mission-critical platforms and networks, our days of easy-to-understand and buy IT, services are probably over too. Therefore, it is better to ask the right questions about the IT services you need, such as:

  • Is the IT service secure?
    Online security in a cloud era with an increased digital crime is where we suggest spending dollars to protect millions.

  • Does the IT service integrate?
    Platforms and networks come with different integration requirements, and troubleshooting integration issues, something we spend a lot of time doing, can be a bear.

  • Will the IT service scale?
    Online, everything gets bigger or shrinks, so knowing how an IT service will scale is crucial.

  • What's the IT service experience? - Everything wins or loses customers' hearts and minds; there is no neutral so ask if your IT services are helping or hurting your cause.

How WTE Does IT Services

WTE is a group of United States based programmers and marketers who love puzzles, challenges, and helping our customers win their customers hearts and minds. Yes, we offer some traditional IT services such as hosting websites, but we don’t use “traditional” approaches.

Every service we offer uses our three-legged approach: Lego-Like Code – we code in blocks with hooks to facilitate connection to other blocks or Applications Program Interfaces (APIs). Extreme Programming (XP) - we use Kent Beck’s pragmatic programming approach outlined in his book Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change.

XP emphasizes business results and a get-something-started NOW while committing to continual testing and revisions to speed the development of new products, applications, and solutions. Agile Software Development – develop new products in partnership with customers and end-users using self-organizing cross-functional teams. Our approach changes and influences every IT service offered. Our customers benefit because our IT services are secure, easy to integrate, and focused on winning your customers’ hearts and minds.

Resources

Blue Oceans & Hot Sauce

Blue Ocean Strategies website.

Ebill

EcellaPay website.

IT Services

VMware whitepaper Digital First Future.

WTE Magazines

WTE on Flipboard
WTE on Flipboard
WTE Ecosystem Magazine
WTE Ecosystem Magazine
Techno Magazine
Techno Magazine