A few of us from the Excella Team recently headed to Seattle for Build, Microsoft’s annual flagship developer conference. The three-day event was packed with announcements, updates, and demos of the latest and greatest Microsoft developer tools. We all heard a lot of interesting news, but by the end there were a few highlights for…
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Let’s Talk Tech (and more!)
Our people are passionate about their work, and they have a lot to say about it! Check out our weekly insights for our thoughts on technology, data, Agile, and program management.
Becoming a Catalyst, Part One
Agile Transformation efforts are characterized by change: new practices, new processes, new technologies, and often a new culture. While direction for this may come from the top down or be a grass-roots led effort, one thing is certain, your organization will need everyone working towards adopting these changes. To do this effectively means harnessing all…
Is Your Aging Technology Holding You Back?
By now, most of us have heard “every company is a tech company,” or “every business is a digital business.” It might sound hackneyed, but it’s true. Technology is no longer a commodity or service, it is your core business. Digital transformation has major implications for every business and industry, but those who rely on…
Why Security May Be the Biggest Reason to Modernize
What do a leading retailer, major health insurer and government agency have in common? Target, Anthem, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) were all famously breached in recent years by hackers preying on weak points in their legacy systems. It’s no longer a question of if your organization will be breached, it’s a matter…
The Real Cost of Aging IT Systems, Part Two: The Top 4 Costs Holding Businesses Back
In our previous post, we discussed how outdated, core IT systems can impact budgets and hinder progress. We also learned that by some estimates legacy systems consume around 75% of federal and commercial IT budgets, a staggering number given the pace of technological advancement in recent years. In this article, the second of our two-part…
The Real Cost of Aging IT Systems, Part One: How Outdated IT Burdens Budgets
IT leaders know aging technology systems eat away budgets, but what are the real and hidden costs to keep these critical systems going? How do you account for the budget impact of aging IT? In this article, part one of our two-part series, The Real Cost of Aging IT Systems, we highlight the budgetary impact…
Should the Product Owner Come From the Client or Vendor?
We often see a scenario where we have vendors/contractors working with a client to deliver a solution. The questions that I often get asked is should the Product Owner come from the client side or should it come from the vendor side? With the Product Owner role, using the words Product and Owner gives us…
PyCon 2017: Excella’s Top Picks
PyCon 2017 in Portland, Oregon showcased excellent presentations featuring everything under the hood of the Python programming language. From general overviews of Python best practices, to niche talks about new tools and libraries, this was a really great experience for anyone interested in Python and coding. From Python beginner to Python expert, there were talks…
Three Common Questions for TypeScript Beginners
TypeScript was released in 2014 and is becoming more commonly used every day in the development world. It is not brand new, but not quite a staple yet. A lot of developers already know it well, and are able to develop all kinds of applications with it. On the other hand, many developers who do…
Deep Learning: Its Power, Promise and the Future of Analytics
Artificial intelligence (AI) won’t be taking over our world, but it will be augmenting human ability in ways that will make our businesses and organizations more efficient for those who adopt deep learning methods. Deep learning represents a class of multi-layered artificial neural networks that have become wildly efficient at many tasks. Gartner estimates that…
