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In 2020, Scalefocus introduced one of its most important internal programs with the goal to stimulate and prompt people with leadership inclinations to grow that proclivity into action. The initiative, called LEAD, is a 15-week course, that brings together and supports new managers in their first steps in leading and building effective teams, helping them avoid the most common management mistakes, and set them on a successful course for becoming fabulous leaders. The program, led by Scalefocus mentors with support from the co-creator and external expert Mihail Stefanov, was met with resounding success and is now starting its second iteration within the company. We wanted to share some of that success with a quick overview of LEAD and the art of building powerful teams and effective leaders. LEAD as an equipment tool The initiative was specially designed to dive deeply into essential leadership topics: for example, how to build effective teams, how to communicate with different behavior types, how to create trust quickly, how to moderate team meetings for maximum results, how to do efficient one-on-one, how to give constructive feedback, and many more. Those are the most sought-after skills a manager should have, but not everyone is able to use them so effortlessly. In other words, you can know the theory but without having the necessary confidence - you will not be properly equipped for your manager role. LEAD is an interactive training and not at all boring theory, going through 6 modules with video lessons, quizzes, and practical assignments, with step-by-step guidelines. At the end of each training module, the trainees were assigned a task in a real-life Scalefocus situation so that they can implement their knowledge and see how it works firsthand. Each module, on the other hand, was focused on developing a different facet of the new manager’s knowledge and skills, like: How to avoid the most common management mistakes Understanding basic human behavior, motivation and developing tactical empathy Developing high-trust teams Developing common-value teams and conversation management Inspiring and creating high-efficiency teams Exceptional Response and Second Iteration Six experienced managers from the Scalefocus ranks joined the program as hosts, to train and help the new managers within the company thrive. With a blended learning approach, LEAD is a unique combination of several components pertaining to theory and practice. Here is what some of the people who completed the program successfully (resulting in their changed positions later) shared. "LEAD is about bringing people together, no matter how different they are. For me, it was the experience that made me rethink the concept of teams and gave a stronger meaning to the word." Tsvetan Smardanski, .NET Technology Team Lead "The LEAD program helped me upgrade myself as a leader, learn about different techniques, and identify which style is best to apply depending on the goals I want to achieve. I believe that the program helps people learn different ways and approaches to successfully lead, unite and engage others so that you can create teams that are ready for any challenge." Tushka Dermendzhieva, previously - Java Technology Team Lead, currently - Java Technology Manager The LEAD program helped me strengthen the trust index within the team. I learned how crucial psychology safety is for a successful collaboration and received many great tips on working better and more efficiently together with my peers. Borislav Chomonev, previously Technology Team Lead, currently - Technology Manager The second iteration of the program is currently starting in the spring of 2021, once again uniting hosts and trainees in the quest for getting into the best leadership mindset possible. Creating great teams, building up leaders, and cultivating growth have always been and will be among the main purposes of Scalefocus as a company and we are proud to say the potential of our amazing team and their abilities have been mind-blowing. LEAD will continue to nurture and build stronger and stronger leaders in the IT sector, help people believe in themselves, and inspire them to become more.

One of the most common challenges startups have to solve is the product-market fit. In the early stages, every founder is exploring the demand for their product and wondering whether there will be paying customers. Another important question to ask is what resources are needed and whether they will be effective. The truth is that the answers do not come instantly, and the product-market fit does not happen by accident. In order to be successful, startups need to employ a process-driven mindset, and acknowledge that there will be product tweaks and maybe a pivotal re-planning of target markets, as well as new sales and marketing tactics and other adjustments. More than ever before, startups need the expertise, guidance and support of a trusted technology partner. At Scalefocus, high-quality execution is in our DNA. Our nine years of experience delivering software solutions and services has resulted in many success stories for companies of all sizes and industries. When it comes specifically to innovation-driven startups, Scalefocus prides itself in offering consultation services from the early stage, preventing businesses from failing with a product lacking demand, by setting aggressive MVPs, or by designing overly complex architecture. In this blog post, we’ll shine the light on successful startups we have consulted, and the projects we have completed to help them grow competitively in their respective industries. Keep reading, to see if the benefits of partnering with us match your future goals and if they do, don’t hesitate to reach out to form an action plan together! Consultation and Creation of a Mobile Healthcare App The German-based startup Myo wanted to bridge the communication gap between seniors and their caregivers through a user-friendly Android app. Through it, seniors can describe their own experiences so their relatives are informed about the caregiving process, while the caregivers themselves are given much-deserved appreciation. Scalefocus was responsible for the entire development of the mobile app, focusing on creating transparency and engagement between seniors, their caregivers and relatives, ultimately strengthening their bond. Felix Cuna, Co-Founder of Myo, describes the role of Scalefocus from the initial business analysis to the actual development: “We wanted a sophisticated business analysis, so we could better understand what we were facing. All we had was an idea, so we wanted to find a consulting partner to bring it to life and assist us in implementing the technical part of our solution. Later, we asked them to develop a dedicated mobile app as well.” After the delivery of the app from our side, Myo was able to raise 1.5M seed round. Developing an All in One Language Services Platform What if businesses could transcend borders and expand their international reach by relying on a single platform to manage translation, transcription and interpreting? Scalefocus managed to develop a multi-device language platform that does just that for a British startup enabling it to realize its potential and surpass the initial business goals. Today, the platform has over 60,000 active users around the globe and receives around 1240 appointments each day, supporting 250 languages. The platform allows for the translation of roughly 9740 words every minute. Building an Asset Verification Platform aXedras, a precious metals company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, chose Scalefocus as its strategic partner to help solve a major challenge they were facing: the need to digitalize and connect assets on a global level. Digitalizing important compliance processes and managing documentation easily and with transparency were also critical goals that needed to be met. Scalefocus developed a verification platform in which each member joining that platform has access to verified assets and can follow their entire life cycle. Here’s what Urs Röösli, CEO of aXedras had to say about partnering with Scalefocus: “What we value most about our partnership with Scalefocus is their wide pool of expertise in terms of tech people, their experience of running global projects, the fast reaction and the open communication attitude to not only deliver a solution but take ownership of developing it with us.” Check out the conversation with Urs to learn more about the work Scalefocus and aXedras are doing together. Developing an Engaging Mortgage CRM App A mortgage startup was looking for a partner to help develop an app that would take the hassle out of creating powerful CRM and automated marketing materials and campaigns. They needed a system that would allow top producers to close large amounts of loans, receive referrals and make profits quickly and easily. Scalefocus built a CRM mobile app to give users complete ease of access to complete and update mortgages on the go, avoid missing important tasks with notifications, and use in-app texting to always stay in contact with borrowers and partners. A Mobile Solution that Disrupts the Fintech Industry Rubarb, a German fintech startup, was looking for a way to disrupt the fintech industry with a next-gen financial service mobile application that would take the stress out of finance and investments. They chose Scalefocus as a technology partner that would design and develop a feature-rich app with engaging and intuitive UX, combined with easy onboarding and robust data protection.  Scalefocus delivered an app that rounds up what users pay online, with the digital “change” going directly into their savings account. Additionally, a user can choose a specific savings plan or select one-time pay-ins. Users can choose from three investment strategies depending on their risk appetite, with all investments made in ETFs. As a result of our efforts, the company reduced software development costs and reported a 29% retention rate. Check out the case study for more details. Creating a Fintech From Scratch From the ground up, Scalefocus helped create a brand-new digital insurer. Starting from establishing the idea’s x-factor and how it stands out from the competition, to defining the startup’s goals and creating a proof of concept. Then, forming a budget plan to achieve revenue targets and reviewing regulations. Scalefocus was tasked with creating an end-to-end platform including implementation of one of the leading insurance Core systems, customer portals, multiple integrations with third-party systems and continuous support. We were also responsible for creating a scaling strategy that would enable the startup to maintain a strong customer base and grow steadily in the long run. Prior to the launch, the software and entire process were tested, helping get valuable feedback on fixes and improvements before reaching the end customers. Accelerate Your Startup with Scalefocus Have these success stories motivated you to take your business to the next level? We'd love to have a chat, to discuss your ideas and how to bring them to life without stress and the waste of valuable resources. Are you already in the development phase, but are stuck and need guidance? Reach out for a free consultation and our experts will gladly assist you in solving the challenges ahead or entirely take over. We've got your back throughout the entire journey.

Like every other business, you would probably agree that monitoring the activities to gauge the sales and account team performance is of crucial importance. To achieve that, sales managers and leaders keep a close eye on their team’s average number of calls made, emails sent, and meetings booked, to ensure that their teams are operating at maximum efficiency. This also helps predict if they are going to reach their monthly quota. On the other hand, sales reps want to easily prioritize their daily sales activities. They feel greater motivation to increase their activity if they know what volume they need to achieve in order to reach their personal income targets. So how does a company satisfy both the needs of the manager and the team representatives? Implementing Sales Cloud, Outlook integration and Standard Einstein Activity Capture is the first step many businesses take to streamline and monitor all activities closely and accurately. There are however still limits that should be noted. As a Salesforce partner, Scalefocus would like to share its knowledge and experience with you before you consider implementation. Understanding the Limits The activities that are captured from Outlook are actually only visualized in Salesforce org, stored on Amazon web service (AWS) [1]. This means that these activities do not "live" in the customer’s Salesforce org, but only appear in it. Since there is no "trace" of these activities, we can’t use the data in a workflow, process builder or flow as the data don’t show up. So, a one-click solution is not an option. The access to all actives captured by Einstein Activity Capture is a licensed feature. You can choose between 3 licenses: · Sales Cloud Einstein – 50$/per user/per month[2] · Inbox – 25$/per user/per month · High Velocity Sales - 75$/per user/per month Each license option comes with benefits and improvements of the Sales Cloud and each comes with Einstein Activity Capture. Both Sales Cloud Einstein and High Velocity Sales include Inbox as a feature. Inbox as a standalone license has the lowest cost per user and the least number of functionalities. To discuss the licenses in further detail and find which one is best suited for your business goals, feel free to reach out to our Salesforce experts for a consultation. Our Approach Let’s take a recent client scenario and ask: Why did we advise our customer to go small and then grow in scale when needed? First, we carefully considered the solution and features needed. To satisfy the business logic, we only need access to the activity metric fields included in the Inbox license. Then we evaluated the considerations and limitations of each license. What they all have in common, is that if there is at least one Einstein Activity Capture user, then all Salesforce users in the company can use the activity metric fields. Knowing that, we advised our customer to purchase the Inbox license. This decision saved up to 50% of license cost. Because Salesforce is a scalable platform our customer can purchase a license upgrade anytime to answer growing functionality needs. As a trusted partner, we consult our customers on how to choose from the variety of Salesforce licenses to suit best their business needs and to improve the ROI of their CRM implementation. Reach out to our team to learn more and take the next step in scaling your business effectively. The Authors: Tanya Marinova, Senior Salesforce Consultant, Scalefocus Nikolay Bizev, Senior Technical Instructor, Scalefocus [1] The Problems with Einstein Activity Capture for Salesforce [2] Sales Cloud Einstein is a higher tier of Inbox License.

Even if you already have an in-house IT team, the benefits of implementing an outsourced IT service provider are worth your attention. Having a dedicated nearshore development center (NDC) of experienced IT specialists that complement your day-to-day IT operations, help you solve critical challenges, and let you focus on growing your business is just the starting point. Read on to learn about the four main issues a nearshore development center helps tackle, and some examples of successful businesses that have grown by choosing Scalefocus as their strategic nearshore partner. 1. Limited IT Resources & Recruiting Difficulties Dynamic markets, remote access and tighter security, have contributed to the rise of managed IT services in the past year with spending reaching roughly $733.9 billion in 2020 (Statista). About a third of that budget is going to cloud services. Many companies, however, are still struggling with a need for extra development power, lacking the IT resources necessary to implement their projects. For businesses in such a scenario, partnering with an NDC provides the necessary strategic planning and monitoring that allow to properly allocate resources quickly, as well as identify and correct and problems that may arise in the future. A valuable partnership can opens doors for budgets and projects that may have previously never been considered. Check out how Scalefocus approaches implementing a Technology Strategy here. An organization’s digital transformation is put on the back burner when faced with a lack of skilled employees. Gartner reports that in the last five years, the growth in jobs requiring digital skills posted by non-tech companies in top 12 countries by GDP has risen significantly, especially around AI, RPA and data science. 2. Quality Assurance in Application Development High-quality application development ensures ease of use throughout the entire consumer journey, quick onboarding, great functionality and scalability. These are all critical factors when launching a product company, and help a business stay ahead of the competition. However, they also require a very high level of application development standard that can be achieved either by recruiting top professionals at a high cost or selecting a services partner with the right experience and technical expertise. When you choose Scalefocus as your digital nearshore development center, you enter a partnership that has built scalable teams with a high level of experience in multiple technologies. We take a holistic approach when addressing the needs of a business, are not bound to a specific technology. We select and implement the optimal one that will solve a company’s specific problems. Businesses that are struggling to find the right talent that meets the project requirements, and are losing too much time in recruitment, can take advantage of Bulgaria’s prime location. Bulgaria has one of the largest IT talent pools worldwide, with over 70,000 employed in the ICT sector, with a 45% growth since 2017 (Export.Gov). 3. Time-to-Market Having a long and strenuous time-to-market can significantly drag you behind, costing you time, money and effort that could be placed towards reaching new milestones and growing the relationship with your end customers. So, what leads to a long time to market? Reasons may include a mix of poor project planning, complex design and architecture, labour-intensive manual processes, or a lack of quality and compliance. Implementing an NDC allows a company to utilize a pool of resources that helps overcome these hurdles, that in most cases, exceed their internal capacity. The services company is able to create team setups that engage a large group of professionals with all ranges of technical skillsets that can operate in full time, shared, task-based and other modes creating a very efficient and much more cost-effective setup. By partnering with Scalefocus, your business can enjoy a fast and easy team onboarding and start thanks to our large IT talent pool, fine-tuned recruiting processes, and IT Staff Transformation training program, with a detailed ramp-up strategy aligned with your long-term objectives. We delegate experts accordingly, with an adjustable team composition to match varying project needs, and have dedicated delivery managers that are responsible for the project’s overall success. 4. Budget Limitations The benefits of predictive and cost-effective resource scaling are powerful. Many businesses, however, don’t have an effective budget strategy in place and rely on simply setting a cap on costs spent, allocating resources poorly, and minimizing the positive outcome that may come from ignored areas. Due to the current pandemic, Gartner reports that since 2020, 62% of businesses have planned to cut down overall spending, with 18% planning to cut costs in each category. The most limitations are focused on marketing and sales. The good news is that by employing a nearshore team, businesses are able to cut costs by up to 50%, and at times, receive superior development quality, compared to the one in their home country. At Scalefocus, we believe that scheduling and budgeting are important capabilities that lead to successful project execution, and we continue to offer them, in addition to our project planning services. Check out more info on our approach to project management here. Let’s Take the Next Step Together Our expert teams of developers, project managers, business consultants, work synchronously with a wide range of technologies to deliver successful projects for successful businesses. One particular project we are proud of is Deploying a Remote Delivery Center for a Digital Retailer. By fully digitalizing our business partner’s personalized services, they now enjoy a 30x increase in time-to-market, a double decrease in engineering costs, and 6x faster staffing. We are also big proponents of developing and implementing cloud-based technology and computing. For one of our clinical solutions providers, our engineers effectively replaced all of their monolithic solutions in a single cloud-based platform. We were able to contribute to effective service distribution, 15 000 automated QA tests, and 40% overall cost decrease. Read more about our project, Private Cloud-Based Application Development. If these success stories have piqued your interest, and you’d like to discuss options to grow your business, reach out to us for a free consultation. Whether you’re just discovering the benefits of implementing an NDC, in the initial phase of project ideation and need some guidance, facing challenges with scheduling and budget, or stuck in the development phase, Scalefocus is here to help. Let’s join forces and take the next step together in scaling your business to new heights.

It is evident that emerging technologies are creating a major transformation in the Telecom industry. As of 2020, there were 7.9 billion mobile connections, and GSMA Intelligence is expecting that number to grow to 8.6 billion by 2025. Subscribers are relying on fast mobile data connection and high bandwidth to interact on various digital media platforms. Telco companies are expected to enter the IoT market with ready solutions, leveraging new technologies in order to improve the customer’s experience, while redesigning business models to maximize monetizing of advanced mobile networks. In order to stand out from the competition, Telco companies must first recognize and overcome specific challenges that are faced within the industry. A while ago, we covered 8 Game-Changing Telecommunication Trends of 2018-2021, which you should definitely check out. In this article, we will discuss 5 critical pain points Telco businesses need to address in 2021 and the technologies and capabilities which we’ve proven will help resolve them. Challenge 1: Data Segmentation and Redundancy With such huge data volumes passing through and with so many workflow processes in place, Telco companies need a solid data strategy, and an effective way to continuously integrate new products and functionalities seamlessly. Moreover, they need a system which allows for effective data segmentation and avoidance of data redundancy so they can quickly identify and seize market opportunities. Being dedicated to delivering scalable solutions, our engineers provided a big European Telecom company with an entirely customized system using multiple metadata and configuration parameters, in order to achieve high flexibility and easy operational maintenance. To address data redundancy, proper enterprise data warehouse management must be in practice and data must be stored appropriately. EDW’s act as a data repository and allow businesses to leverage near real-time data processing approaches for hot data combined with massive daily matches. For a major Telecom provider and client of ours, Scalefocus continues to integrate new systems in their EDWH, including Highway, an eCommerce platform, IFRS, GDPR, performance optimizations, refactoring, and portfolio integrations in the core data models. Meanwhile, data lakes offer a flexible and scalable way to keep all market data flows fluent across systems, while providing valuable insights to place Telco businesses ahead in the international markets. Scalefocus has experience in implementing data lakes using Microsoft Azure, recently building a cloud-based solution for another client of ours, which lowered management costs significantly and decreased report generation by 27, eliminating manual processes for data collection and analysis. Challenge 2: Low Customer Outreach and Conversion Legacy eCommerce platforms have outdated, ineffective features which hinder or even eliminate the chances for high customer conversion and don’t place customer needs first. Luckily, there are several eCommerce solutions that are built in order to create a powerful omnichannel experience that personalize the customer’s path towards subscribing to a Telecom service. Such solutions give Telecom companies the power to perform complex customer profiling through CRM software, decrease customer churn through robust analytics, engage customers through chat bots and social media plugins, providing an online, offline and physical experience. Scalefocus has actually implemented our full-featured eCommerce platform for a major European Telecom operator, customizing the system to their services, while focusing on providing high availability, performance and scalability. For another Telecom operator, Scalefocus was chosen to maintain, support and further develop their B2B/ B2C web-based Self Care portals and mobile customer apps. Our engineers migrated the company’s Web Farm legacy systems to new modern server, as well as performed rebranding, refactoring, code optimization and restructuring. Our iOS and Android teams have also designed and developed a mobile app for a Telecom company that allows users to manage and configure their own accounts and mobile plans. Users can see an overview of their data consumption, SMS or minutes, subscribe or unsubscribe to any features, promotions and services. After launching the app, our client has decreased manual labor of customer support and store staff, while increasing revenue as users can now easily subscribe to new promotions. Furthermore, the company has gained valuable insights which they can use to finetune and tailor their services to specific customer interests. Challenge 3: Lack of Agile System Integration Due to the fact that many Telco companies still rely on point-to-point integration and laborious impromptu coding, much resources end up being wasted and onboarding external vendors, suppliers and warehouses becomes ineffective or impossible. Scalefocus builds custom integration solutions that sync existing message queues, API endpoints, and read data directly from its source: the database or produced files. To help meet your commitments to vendors and suppliers, Scalefocus builds an integration IT layer, that brings all their data in a single dashboard for more efficient, effective and accurate planning. For a major Bulgarian Telecom operator, Scalefocus managed to successfully integrate its various systems: Amdocs OMS, CRM, billing, resource management, Prima, key accounts system, mail client, SMS center, user management system, fraud system and DWH. “Number Portability One-Stop-Shop EAI is a fully automated solution for all types of number portability - mobile, fixed and non-geographic. It is compliant with the regulatory procedure announced by the Communication Regulation Commission. "ScaleFocus was a tremendous contributor to the success of Mobile Number Portability project. They truly showed a great commitment to providing outstanding IT consultancy and meeting our business objectives." Lyubomira Mihailova - Project Manager, Mobiltel Meanwhile, for another client of ours, we centralized their electronic order management processes and significantly reduced the costs in communication with their strategic partner. We achieved this by designing and implementing a separation of the two partnering companies and implementing new software and services with multitenant functionalities that enable smooth transition and adapt quickly to dynamic market and customer behaviour trends. Challenge 4: Poor Efficiency and High Operational Costs Instead of focusing on expansion and innovation, many Telecoms are stuck in the dreaded state of figuring out a way to eliminate the constant repetitive business transactions across various business units. These analog transactions are usually responsible for lengthening the time to market and increasing costs and errors, thus sacrificing the quality of the end service and leaving more customers unsatisfied. At Scalefocus we build RPA solutions that are based on UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism that enable Telecoms to drastically decrease operational expenses through automation and prevent human error while decreasing manual labor. One success story from a US based Telecom provider, illustrates the positive effects of automating the processes related to workflows for requesting, approving and processing updates to their employee positions, compensations and bonuses. Partnering with Scalefocus, the company now enjoys a reduced processing time per request cut in half the time, less manual workload and human error elimination, as well as improved visibility and compliance by documenting and reviewing each step of every process. Challenge 5: Technological Expertise and R&D It’s normal for companies to experience some anxiety and confusion when implementing a new technology, however they must be proactive in learning how to assess and apply its beneficial features to their business. IoT is one technology that has opened the door for Telecoms to enrich their portfolio with a wide range of services that add value to their customers. And although Telecoms may have strong in-house technological expertise in IoT, the shift towards highly innovative solutions requires significant R&D effort. First and foremost, Scalefocus offers professional consultation, which can help you navigate the murky waters of market penetration and business expansion using unfamiliar technologies, giving you greater clarity on what you’ll be able to achieve. Then, we go further by designing and developing custom solutions that will attract new subscribers and place your business ahead in a highly competitive environment. These solutions include smart home enablement (security, entertainment, remote work), 4/8K streaming, live events, and enablement of variety of real-time services via 5G's ultra-low latency. We are currently leveraging our partnership with a leading German engineering company and their IoT suite, after successfully patenting and developing an in-house end-to-end smart parking solution that pairs their sensors and live gateways to allows users to easily find available parking spaces near them. We’re in the process of extending their IoT suite to offer Telco specific capabilities. We’ll cover that topic in an upcoming article, so make sure you follow our blog to keep posted. Let’s Talk Telecom Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Why not start by taking a look at some of our clients’ success stories? Learn more about what leading Telco companies have achieved by partnering with Scalefocus and get in touch to have a chat with our team in a free consultation.

Iva Nikolova is part of the Scalefocus’ Мarketing team which hosts a plethora of creative, digital-loving people. She is also the only Event Manager in the company, who takes care of the organization of business-related events and campaigns – now, mostly in a digital environment. Below, she shares a bit of her world, inspirations, and working in the eye of the storm in the Covid-19 era. On how she ended up in IT My name is Iva Nikolova and I was born and raised in Sofia. After spending 6 years in Germany studying Economics & Law and working part-time as an intern at a Congress & Events center, I decided to come back to Bulgaria and start my professional career here. By that time, I knew that law was certainly not my true calling and my passion for organizing events was going to be the leading force in my life. On her role at Scalefocus I have been working at Scalefocus for two years now. I started as part of the Employer Branding team in 2019, where I have been leading the organization of employee-related events and CSR initiatives. One year ago, I was offered the opportunity to become part of the Marketing team and to take over business-related events and campaigns. Then Covid-19 came and turned everything we know in the event business upside down, so we had to adapt and go completely digital. We needed to think fast in the eye of the storm and adapt quickly. On her career I have worked in several advertising agencies throughout the years, and I always wanted to see what it is like to be on the other side – to be the client and do things in-house and following a complex strategy, rather than working on a project base. Scalefocus seemed like the perfect challenge at the time – the biggest software company in Bulgaria, with over 700 employees, in a fast-moving sector with dynamic changes, and a need for fast adaptability. On her favorite memory while with the company I got to celebrate my 28th birthday during Scalefocus’ last Christmas party (in 2019). I have never had 500 guests on my birthday before! On her favorite project I can’t pick just one. I have favorite moments from each project – these are the times when I see people having fun and enjoying the work my team and I have put for months before the event. On why she likes her team Because there are my ride-or-die. In my line of work no man is capable enough to do everything and deliver on time without the effort of at least 5 more people no matter the project size. On how she deals with hardships People. People are my strongest weapon, and they help me get through any struggle I stumble upon in life. On the best piece of advice for people in her field To not be afraid of failure, because it is part of the job and it mostly happens in the most critical times no matter how perfect everything has been planned. Crisis management is part of the job and you better have the nerves for it 🙂 On her workday My workday usually starts with a to-do plan and catch-up on all high-priority tasks for the day. I communicate with a lot of stakeholders and vendors on a regular basis and WFH is not an issue, since all my projects have gone digital. I am currently multitasking between preparation for a webinar, a couple of awards entries, a hackathon sponsorship, and several small-scale event plug-ins. On recharging A few years ago, I discovered yoga and it has been helping me recharge and clear my mind after a long day ever since. When I get the chance, I also do small weekend trips and visit new places, even if it’s just for a couple of hours. The change of scenery instantly takes my mind of the everyday struggles. Wine is also very helpful when the above two fail to deliver. And I like sneakers. I’m kind of a sneaker-addict. I’m a bit of a foodie and I like to cook as it keeps my hands busy and gets me a lot of compliments as well (heh). I do love the whole process, maybe because it is very organized and neat, and if you follow all the steps precisely – it will inevitably bring you some great results (kind of like the preparation for an event). My newly-found Covid-19-hobby is painting by numbers. Yeah, sounds like a grandma club activity, but it helps me unwind and turn off, which after a day spent in phone calls with all kinds of vendors (print houses, event venues, guest speakers, PR agencies, etc.) is the best remedy ever. On the most important lesson of 2020 Take more time and devote it to your loved ones. It sounds cheesy, but obviously, it takes a pandemic to make you realize that we don’t have so much time as we thought.

Tiho Aleksovski is a Senior UI/UX Designer at Scalefocus and the next awesome person from the Scalefocus team who lifts the curtain to show us a bit of his life and work. In this edition of People of Scale, he tells about his experience as a graphic and UI/UX designer, his journey before Scalefocus (including getting a degree in Dentistry), his inspirations and motivations, and much more. Keep reading below. On his background I was born and grew up in Kumanovo, Macedonia, graduated in the Dentistry specialty at the Medical School in Skopje and Visual Arts and Graphic Design in Sofia. I came to Sofia in 2006 to study, fell in love with the city, and decided to stay here. I have 14 years of experience under my belt as a graphic and UI/UX designer in various industries and disciplines: from publishing through advertising agencies and media, a few tech startups, and then joined Scalefocus. On his role and purpose As a Senior UI/UX Designer in Scalefocus, my primary responsibilities include solving complex product challenges and transforming client's big ideas and business needs into great, customized, user-oriented, and user-friendly digital products. During the four years I've spent in the company, I had the opportunity to work on various projects for internal and external clients, for both small and large-scale, local and international companies, across different industries. I've been lucky to work in amazing teams with colleagues who are great professionals and people. At first, I joined the company because the project I was interviewed for (and later joined in) meant a significant professional challenge and opportunity. The company had a notable social media presence, and it seemed like a great place to work, with fascinating young people and a lot of fun internal activities. I remember one of them being a craft beer culture and events in the company I was very fond of. Four years later, I still believe that Scalefocus is an extraordinary place for work and professional growth. On his team We are a relatively small team. We share a great passion for UI and UX and a similar sense of humor. We are always happy to share knowledge and learn from each other's project experiences. Оn dealing with challenges I usually bring it up for a discussion within the team, to get more opinions and different points of view, which (most of the time) leads to an interesting discussion and new ideas for possible solutions that end all doubts. Also, I keep this picture open somewhere between all browser tabs, and when I accidentally see it while switching tabs, it instantly helps to forget about all doubts and worries and puts me in a good mood. On being a musical soul I have a strong passion for music, and I listen to various genres and artists that you can see here, and check if we have compatible music taste. Please don't judge when you catch me listening to CECA. I enjoy going to live shows. I’m a magnet for catching guitar picks, drum sticks and setlists. I’m also collecting music on color vinyl, and CD’s with good packaging design. I've played mandola for four years in a school orchestra. Now I play air guitar and air drums. The hours of commuting were my usual time for practice. On advice for anyone now starting in the field I wouldn't give advice per se, but I can share what has worked for me. One thing I know for sure is: it's essential to be open to different types of projects. You start somewhere, and you learn new things along the way. Creating digital products is teamwork, so being sure to respect everyone's role in the team. Not being afraid to ask questions (do quite the opposite, actually!). Also, be a good listener and think analytically, because you need to understand the users' specific needs accurately to find the best solution. On his daily work I'm currently working on a project to connect and digitalize a whole industry (which I cannot disclose because of an NDA). As part of the project's product management team, my tasks are based on creating UI and UX design in the application, based on the business requirements and user needs for the different functionalities that cover all life cycles of the products. With the Work from Everywhere model at Scalefocus (which at the beginning of the pandemic was a Work from Home model for everyone), I got into the habit of it almost instantly. Now, I am more focused and more productive. Without mandatory daily commuting, my daily schedule seems to be more efficient. On the most important lesson of 2020 The good health and wellbeing of one's loved ones are precious, and we should always keep this in mind and approach things with care and gratitude. I realized how much we have been taking things for granted and learned to appreciate them more. To meet more awesome People of Scale, try clicking on the stories of Roni, Aleksandra or Kostadin. If you want to join one of our awesome teams at Scalefocus, check out our current openings and drop us a line!

Taking advantage of market opportunities is a tricky business, especially when it comes to energy trading. Market participants are all facing various challenges, each trying to optimize their portfolio, minimize risks and achieve operational excellence. Limiting exposure to market fluctuations and mitigating risks is an all-encompassing effort in volatile energy markets. It involves proper portfolio management, monitoring performance, ensuring optimized maintenance of energy systems and controls, all in real-time. The volume and variety of structured and unstructured data processed also plays a critical role. With so many elements to take into consideration when making a trade, effective data management and analytics are of extreme importance. Exploring opportunities and risks in energy trading Effective management of up to the minute data and streaming analytics allows proactive monitoring, and imminent decision support based on market data. As a catalyst for digital transformation, Scalefocus offers various data services that respond to the unique needs of businesses in the energy and utilities sector including powerful streaming analytics tools. Let’s focus on how streaming analytics, together with the use of real-time data, are able to explore opportunities and lower the risks in energy trading and can lead to better business results. The main benefits of real-time streaming analytics include the ability to: Analyze data at the speed of its creation ensuring that your trading decisions are well-informed and made on the most current data. Receive continuous insights that allow complex pattern recognition and detection of hidden market opportunities, improving your portfolio performance. Enable and support effective market surveillance by detection of fraudulent behaviours to ensure regulatory compliance. Use streaming data sets for ML model optimization to enhance cost control and scenario testing. Examples of streaming analytics in action High-frequency trading is gaining ground in energy markets. Timing is crucial - getting real-time quotes enables traders to work alongside predictive models that anticipate price movements. Data streaming is a substantial element for successful algo trading. Traders and market analysts can pull out various valuable trends, hidden patterns or arbitrage opportunities from the stream, making most of trading timeframes. Streaming analytics can contribute towards modelling risks, internal and external trading behaviors effectively and assess risk returns better. Tackling challenges head-on It is a fact, that to be successful in energy trading, a company requires highly analytical modelling capabilities to stand out in the global commodity market. The ability to process and assess market data effectively is related to managing information quickly in order to seize and act on the opportunities presented with limited risk. For one of our clients, the challenge remained of retrieving and using their data effectively and efficiently. Their data had been stored in various places that were managed by different teams, each applying their own processes. This was leading to a lack of traceability, significant data duplication and there was no unified approach to maintaining quality, thus lowering it significantly. Tackling the challenge head-on, Scalefocus designed and implemented a data lake on Azure, that now serves as a single location for storing and sharing their data with confidence. In turn, our client has reported improvement in quality and data lineage that is easily trackable through the centralized system. Apart from decreasing report generation time by 27% and lowering data query timelines from several hours to minutes, all incoming data was enriched with metadata using Databrick notebook. It’s time to assess your objectives Our clients have two options, when choosing to partner with Scalefocus to leverage data analytics successfully. We offer complete implementation of powerful data analytics tools like Microsoft Power BI, or Azure Databricks that provide fast processing speed, data visualization, dashboard sharing and many other features. As an alternative, we can create a fully customized cloud-native modelling platform, giving greater flexibility and access control management, tailoring it to your unique needs. Still not on cloud? Don’t worry, we’ll be your trusted partner throughout your entire migration journey. It’s all about establishing your goals and with our help, selecting the right path to reach them. Our holistic approach We consider our clients as our spokespeople for our success and areas for improvement. Their stories  fuel our desire to grow as technology experts and expand our industry knowledge. The challenges they face on a daily basis motivate us to work harder, explore new ways of thinking, and apply innovative strategies that address the problem at every angle. The flow of services we provide can be broken down into the following steps: Client-centered consulting. Our business analysts identify key challenges and problems you are facing. Robust architecture. Scalefocus software architects plan and design the best solution that satisfies all of your requirements. Development and support. Our engineers apply industry best practices to create the tools needed to boost your business value and offer round-the-clock assistance upon completion. Automation. We ensure that all of your business processes are running smoothly and efficiently in a CI/CD environment. Take control of your data Want to be the boss of your data and boost results in energy trading? Start by reaching out to our Energy and Utilities team. Together, we can bring your utility company greater business value, ensure maximum optimization of resources, high quality and safety measures that meet regulations and create a sustainable plan for the future.

In November of 2020, Scalefocus conducted the IT Beards initiative for the third consecutive year. The purpose behind it, as usual, was clear - to invite the IT men to stop shaving for a month, snap a selfie and enter a photo competition оn a specially made platform. We gathered donations to support charity organizations to treat and prevent men's health issues through the registered benefactors' voting. This year though, there was something different and even more remarkable in the essence of the campaign. We decided to open the initiative outside of Scalefocus and make it available for every man in the IT sector who wished to join and help through bearding. Оur goal was to involve as many people - and beards - as possible, because when it comes to a good cause, every beard and mustache counts. Partnering With IT Beards All Over The open initiative brought together many companies in the sector who wished to join "the party" of the bearded in the two categories - Already Stylish (for people who had a pre-grown beard) and Fresh Start (for those starting it from scratch). IT companies joined the friendly competition by entering their own participants or by merely becoming benefactors - buying bundles of points and voting. The contestants uploaded a new photo each week, to show their beard's progress and gather more fans. Тhe competition - and the voting - were fierce, so we extended the vote for one more week, finishing proudly on the 7th of December. Among the partner companies who jоined the bearded army were Bosch.IO Bulgaria, Dynamo Software, IBS Bulgaria, BULPROS, TSD Services, Infragistics, Information Services, Vola Software, Smart IT - Smart Innovative Technologies, and Adasoft. All of them deserve a big, warm thank you for the unity and efforts to bring this campaign to success. Ivan Ivanov from Scalefocus and Evgeni Krastev from TSD Services were the most voted contestants respectively in the Already Stylish and the Fresh Start categories. Congratulations to them both - you keep wearing that beard proudly! The Good That Grew From Unity The joined forces of IT Beards this year brought donations оf over 5000 BGN to the WIN OVER CANCER Foundation (Cancercare.bg). The foundation gives reliable information on oncological diseases and coordinates with leading medical specialists in the country. It also supports patients and their families by organizing events that help with prevention, treatment and awareness, and psychological support. All gathered donations in 2020 went directly to the foundation to support the organization of information campaigns and medical checks for prostate cancer prevention in 2021. Тhe campaigns will be held in major cities in Bulgaria. Moreover, with the participation of all of the fantastic contestants and benefactors who supported the cause, we managed to unite the IT sector around an initiative with great energy. Stay tuned for next November when we will hopefully do even better with participants and gathered funds - and keep growing good deeds together.

Compared to the traditional single-channel retail model, in which retailers rely only on either offline or online selling of products, multi-channel has added greater convenience for customers. Through the multi-channel model, you are able to make a purchase from multiple devices and online platforms. To take things one step further, is the omnichannel retail model which takes advantage of both the online and offline customer experience. It taps into website campaigns, email and text marketing, social media and print advertising to expand the brand’s reach to various channels working at the same time. Through its dynamic digital presence, omnichannel retail also gives customers an instant and continuous stream of content that solidifies the experience the product offers and builds brand loyalty. Despite the benefits it brings to customers, creating a seamless omnichannel model for your retail business does have its challenges. In this blog post, we’ve decided to shine the light on four major ones and possible ways to solve them. 1. Data Synchronization With so much information to analyze from multiple channels, mistakes are bound to happen. Data loss and misinterpretation of customer trends and purchase interests and patterns happens without a solid omnichannel strategy in place. We advise retailers to stick to a single reliable enterprise-grade eCommerce system like SAP Hybris or IBM Websphere Commerce, which helps streamline operations smoothly and handles multiple customer touch-points. Reach out to our eCommerce Team, to further discuss the benefits of replatforming your online business. 2. Channel Conflicts All of your channels should be monitored equally; however it is often the case that attention is paid in one certain area, which leads to others lagging behind. This means that not all channels are fully integrated with one another, and have different control and distribution. Prioritizing one channel over another is not effective, as it may lead to missing orders. Omnichannel retailers must keep up to date with inventory data for each channel and measure sales growth respectively. 3. Lack of Visibility It’s very hard to offer great products tailored to a specific customer base without clear inventory visibility. Now, add all of those channels into the mix. What happens when you’ve listed 2-day delivery, but the item arrives 2 weeks later? What if there is different item information across channels? Or worse, you realize the item is out of stock. Besides having an effective order fulfillment process in place, gaining visibility is critical for making forecasts for future product demand. Your eCommerce platform should have automated inventory management for real-time inventory data and tracking. 4. Ineffective Logistics Just as making a purchase should be an easy, pleasurable experience, so should returning an item and asking for a refund. Your product may have arrived damaged, or it might have been the wrong size, color or style from what the customer ordered. A simple return process that’s accessible from any channel and device is critical to keep customer satisfaction up. Shipment status and tracking is also an important feature paired with constant communication, which should both be implemented in order to alleviate the stress of your customer and keep them updated. Create a Great Omnichannel Customer Experience The first step to improving your omnichannel retail model, is being aware of the challenges and facing them head on. Scalefocus is here to help. Our eCommerce Team is able to provide full replatforming, custom chat bots, integration with international shipping and warehouse providers, and sophisticated affiliate management which will all take your omnichannel customer experience to the next level. Reach out to our industry experts to discuss the course of action that’s best for your business.

Outsourcing is a practice undertaken by businesses to reduce costs. While this a widely accepted benefit of outsourcing non-core company operations, some company owners and managers are still sceptical about making a move; this is understandable, especially for business owners that are uncertain about pricing and don't know how to navigate uncharted territory. In the software world, outsourcing support is a plausible yet arguable decision by top management. How can you ensure that your third-party vendor provides a smooth initial software audit that will prepare you to keep your operations running effectively? Read on to find out. Challenges of Outsourcing Support There are several reasons why companies remain sceptical about outsourcing software support. Lack of Understanding Outsourced Support The first step to outsourcing software support is understanding what it entails. The degree of support you need to outsource largely affects your costs and the transfer process. We recommend booking a pre-audit and audit with ScaleFocus to understand how our software support can assist you. Software support varies per business and may include tasks such as: Managing self-help information of user webpages, mobile apps, and chatbots. Managing passwords and authentication. Managing operational issues with databases, code, and software architecture. Fix patches, issue updates, perform vulnerability checks, and make regulatory updates. Uncertainty In the Transfer Phase Transferring processes from your in-house team to an outsourced vendor, if done incorrectly, can affect operations and service delivery. Knowledge acquisition and intense training by the outsourced team is vital to ensure that customers enjoy seamless processes while interacting with your business. What's more, the lack of clear schedules and plans affects business performance. Scheduled and phased handovers yield better results because they allow you and the new vendor to analyse each phase for potential problems and fix them before they grow. Unclear Cost Expectations Uncertain cost expectations from the onset of the transfer are a recipe for disaster. You need clear definitions of roles to be outsourced and a specific cost you can budget. Vague descriptions of the outsourced services breed mistrust and anger, which may be redirected to your clients. Fear of Sharing Knowledge Opening your company to a third-party is a true source of fear for many businesses. Outsourcing could mean sharing your modes of operation, intellectual property, and confidential information. You need assurance that the vendor is informed, secure, and able to protect your business secrets. Step 1: Pre-Audit Having assessed your fears and worries about outsourcing, you need a partner that takes you through each phase correctly. ScaleFocus starts your journey to outsourced software support with a pre-audit, which begins with a one-hour survey. Why a pre-audit? You're still on the fence about outsourcing your software support and would like a quote and a deeper dive into the services you're paying for. The pre-audit analyses your business to give you a reasonable cost estimate and timeframe required to switch to outsourced services. We also give you a plan for the transfer of services and schedules to provide you with a fair estimate of the transfer period. This way, you can quit worrying about a long, strenuous, and unprofitable transfer period. We also prepare a plan for handover and support phases to ensure a smooth transition. We use our experience with other businesses to prepare a template that estimates how we can provide adequate software support. Step 2: Audit Once you accept our software support services, we move into the official audit. We work closely with you, the management, and the IT team to understand your business, operations, processes, and services to clients. We confirm deployment, logins, and monitoring tools in place to ensure that we provide the best customer support. When planned correctly, the software audit process is fast and successful. We aim to keep our audits below one month to ensure a fast, efficient, and successful handover. Once we ascertain the details, we roll out the official knowledge transfer to our staff and software support for your clients. Step 3: Applying Improvements Auditing your software helps shows you the realities of your software's performance. An audit uncovers any functionality glitches and areas in need of improvement. Once you discover issues with your software, you can make the necessary patches and improve business operations. We audit the software and provide a report of all problems that need solutions for a smooth transition. Once we remedy any issues, we can provide exemplary software support, including maintenance and upgrades. During the audit, you can expect the following: Software architectural analysis: We analyze the architecture of the software to check: Robustness: Can the software handle errors and debugging? Modifiability: Can you make changes to the software or adapt it to a new environment? Scalability: Can you increase or decrease capacity and resources with current needs? Portability: Can you use the software in a broad range of environments? Source code review: we analyze the code to ensure it provides feedback Check and limit security risks Check for mistakes Ensure the code is readable What Should You Expect? Outsourcing your software support is an opportunity to enjoy exemplary services from experts without hiring them and managing their wages and benefits. What's more, you can pay for the services you request, rather than getting billed for random services. This makes your budgeting and financial planning more manageable because you know what costs to expect in terms of software support. What's more, outsourcing your software support to a reputable company, such as Scalefocus provides quality assurance. As your business partners, we only provide software we are sure of and give recommendations we have tried and tested. Our experience with various software in the market has exposed us to various problems and provided us with the necessary knowledge to handle various software support issues. At Scalefocus we focus on providing the best software support possible, which begins with gaining your trust. We help you understand the benefits of outsourcing software support and partner with you to give your customers and employees the software experience they deserve. Reach out to us for more information.

For a business to be successful and sustainable, pivotal decisions always have to be made right. In the current digital age, one of the areas that demand extra care is the IT provider a business chooses to work with. Nowadays, technology alone has the potential to bring down businesses unsuspecting. Evidently, a data breach incident can ruin a company's reputation, and customer base behold recovery. Where and whom to trust for a contract as your IT provider is important. Today, we're going to cover why a European IT provider is advantageous for businesses. You'll also learn what to look for in a provider before considering a partnership. Europe, especially Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) prides itself in having the best IT talent and providers in the world. The region has attracted global tech giants such as Microsoft, and Google to set research centres and hire local talents. From low costs, innovation, and ease of cooperation, here is why you should choose a European IT provider for your business. Why Outsource Services from a European IT Provider #1 Skilled Labour Whether you're looking for cloud services, managed services or digital solutions for your business, you would want the best available professionals to handle data. CEE has a growing population of highly skilled specialists both in IT and computer science-related areas like AI and machine learning. As you would expect, these experts have been hired by the IT providers to work for them. Therefore, teams created by ITO (IT Outsourcing) firms to work for your business would be talented. #2 Language Compatibility Unlike Asian providers, most countries in Europe got high proficiency rate in both written and spoken English. This ensures not only effective communication but also efficient and operative partnerships. A misunderstanding from language barrier may lead to errors that can be costly while also causing delays in workflow and communication between teams. Notwithstanding, common language guarantees ease in collaboration, especially when deploying an agile development model in software development. #3 Surging Labour Market CEE countries are enjoying an increasing trained low-cost job market. This means the availability of a pool of talents for ITO providers to hire, consequently reducing costs. This is further confirmed by a recent study conducted by Deloitte's Global Outsourcing Survey. The survey found out that of all companies that outsource, 65% choose European service providers. #4 Innovation When dealing with IT, innovation is the key to continuity. Large labour markets and talented experts have caused the region to become highly innovative. What does this mean for your business? Well, IT providers from these regions can absorb these talents that bring their pioneering solutions to your business. Therefore, you can get specifically tailored digital solutions that perfectly blend with your business at a low cost. The other advantage is that you may find that the IT provider has worked with like businesses in your industry; hence they can easily replicate tested, tried and successful solutions that worked for others. #5 Cost Cutting Building an in-house IT department is expensive. The option is to outsource, the main aim being to cut costs. Without compromising the quality, Europe has low hiring cost. This same phenomenon translates into the costs of outsourcing from the region. One study found out that American businesses can save up to 40% when they choose a European IT provider. Conclusively, Europe has one of the strictest data protection regulations. Firms are required to comply with various data protection by acquiring certifications such as GDPR. IT providers across Europe also have to follow rigid guidelines that make them have a cutting-edge advantage in cybersecurity threats. What to Consider Before Choosing a European IT Provider Though Europeans IT providers are great, not all can make a great IT partner for your business. You deserve a vendor who can offer seamless services. Be on the lookout for the following before you sign outsourcing contract. Should be Well-Recognized If the company is not known in the local country or region, it may be a sign of inexperience and unqualified. The provider should be fully registered by the home government and with a valid physical address as its headquarters. Reputable How do you tell the company is trustworthy? Search for customer reviews. Which businesses have they worked with, and what was the outcome? If there were complaints, what were they about? Reputation also entails who the company has worked with from your industry. For example, healthcare IT-related provider will best suit for your healthcare business. Licensed and Certified It is risky to work with an unlicensed firm. An authentic ITO service provider should possess a valid and up-to-date licence issued by the right licensing body. Certifications are another thing that can help differentiate who's qualified for the job. Be sure they have fully complied with the various requirements and regulations before outsourcing from them. Collaboration Exceptional outsourcing is built on effective collaboration between the vendor and clients. The company should be able to have solutions to flawlessly collaborate with your team on-site for coordination and cooperation services. Besides, they should have physical offices where your team can visit if need be. Pricing What price structure or model does the provider have? Look for easy yet comprehensive pricing models that cover the services you need clearly. Also, consider value for money of the services you're getting in return. Make sure you know all the expenses the client's business might be required to pay for in the future. Remote Workforce and Innovation With the growing need for trained, skilled and proficient remote employees, it's essential to take note of the firm's strategies and solutions. For instance, productive IT outsourcing firms have already put in place innovative solutions to enable their teams to work from home competently. The bottom line to finding the best IT provider in Europe is by having a clear purpose of what you want and leaving no stone unturned in any area you need clarifications from the provider. From the onset, nothing should be suspicious with the provider. Looking for a European IT Provider? At Scalefocus, our primary goal is to bring advanced solutions tailored to work for the specific client in the industries we serve. We love to advance the solutions to fit the changing business environment progressively. Browse our services pages to identify what can best work for your business. For more info, contact us.