Qvantel provides Basware with a billing platform for their e-Invoicing business
By Ilkka Aura
ESPOO, Finland February 9th, 2011
Qvantel, an international IT services company, is enhancing Basware’s invoicing processes with a new, innovative solution with whose help Basware will be able to decisively expand its e-invoicing services and grow its business.
The Qvantel application collects information about e-invoices and other electronic documents relayed through Basware’s Business Automation services and calculates prices for the events and provides customer-specific invoicing data.
The application automates the collection, pricing and invoicing processes of events. It significantly enhances Basware’s operations in an environment where the volume of transmitted documents is in the tens, even hundreds of millions per month for tens of thousands of different organisations. In addition to processing efficiency, the application offers advantageous pricing, discount and product packaging solutions for Basware’s services.
“We chose the Qvantel solution because Qvantel has years of experience in the collection of large event masses as well as pricing and billing in the telecom business. Qvantel offers Basware a centralised, effective and globally scalable application, with which we can ensure well managed growth of our business,” commented Basware General Manager Esa Tihilä.
“Basware is the market leader in electronic processing and automation of businesses’ financial processes. Cooperation with Basware is an excellent start to the wider offering of Qvantel’s core competencies on a growing market,” says Qvantel Oy Chairman of the Board of Directors Ilkka Aura.
“Qvantel has specialised in handling large amounts of events with small economic value cost-effectively and accurately. We believe that electronic documents replace paper printouts at an ever accelerating pace, and that the market for automation of businesses’ financial processes will be growing by tens of per cents annually in the coming years,” Aura says.
Qvantel Group
The Qvantel Group is a 150-person strong international information technology services company. Qvantel offers demanding, business-critical IT consulting services and business support systems those are easily implemented and cost effective. Customers include TDC Nordic, TeliaSonera Group, Elisa Group, Finnet Group as well as Academica Oy, Ericsson AB and ST Ericsson AB. Qvantel has customers in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Spain and Indonesia. The privately owned Qvantel Group has offices in Espoo and Jyväskylä in Finland, Malmö in Sweden, Singapore, as well as Hyderabad and Bangalore in India.
More information about Qvantel Oy’s services is available at:http://www.qvantel.com.
Basware Oy
Basware develops successful solutions for electronic processing of procurements, purchase invoices, travel expenses, online billing and financial management. More than one million users utilise Basware products for automation of financial processes. Basware Oyj was founded in 1985 and its shares are listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
More information about Basware Oy’s services is available at:http://www.basware.fi.
iPhone Indian Calendar applications
iPhone Indian Calendar applications:
By Qvantel
In the current era of revolutions world has become a small place! It’s really sweet and nice to have some of our traditional things close to us wherever we are!
One such attempt is the ‘Indian Regional Calendars’ developed by Qvantel…!
These applications have all the information like festivals, auspicious times etc presented in local Indian language. These calendars are currently available for download from Apple iStore (Links provided below). The calendars are currently developed for Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and Tamil languages. Calendars for other languages will follow soon !!
The rich information provided includes, but not limited to:
- Region specific festivals
- Full moon/No moon days
- Auspicious/In auspicious times (Rahu kaala/ Yamaganda kaal etc)
- Ekadashi days
- Region specific events
The information is presented in 3 easily accessible views: Day, Week and Month.
The applications for iPhone can be downloaded from:
Telugu: http://itunes.apple.com/ru/app/telugu-regional-calendar/id412432177?mt=8
Kannada: http://itunes.apple.com/ru/app/kannada-calendar/id411637186?mt=8
Hindi: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hindi-calendar/id412427431?mt=8
Tamil: http://itunes.apple.com/ru/app/tamil-calendar/id412441182?mt=8
The same applications for Android will be released soon.
We work Agile – Five vigilant points on Agile
Here are five points that companies need to watch for when adopting agile processes
- Unfamiliarity: When early adopters practice agile, they really understand what agile is all about. Mainstream companies are less likely to understand the principles of the process. They’ve heard about ‘this agile thing’ and want the same benefits on their projects.
- Top-down thinking: Most organizations practice top-down management, where managers make decisions and staff follow them. Agile processes work bottom-up, where the team is empowered to take many decisions, and the team is responsible for changing the process. This can be uncomfortable for many managers.
- Culture change: Agile processes not only demand a change in they way software is developed, but a change in culture. Agile processes value a culture of openness, cooperation and collaboration.
- Incomplete implementation: Companies that implement agile processes sometimes change the process out of convenience, without an understanding of the process. ‘We don’t do retrospective meetings because they waste a day of work’, or ‘Everyone knows what to do, a daily standup is not required’ are some forms of process change that are instituted under the guise of ‘tailoring the process’. Tailoring the process is good if you know what you are doing, but can lead to disaster if it is done just for convenience.
- Silver bullet syndrome: Agile processes are not a silver bullet. They will not magically deliver your software, cure all ills and create world peace. There are many components to a successful project, and the process is just one of them. You still need a good team to do the work – in fact a good team is even more important in an agile process than in traditional processes. There are many components that determine project success or failure – management support, effectiveness of the process, quality of the team, familiarity with the domain and technology, to name a few. Agile can help with the process, but don’t ignore the other components.
Right, so what can you do about it? Here are three ideas to help you get started with agile
- Learn about agile: The best thing to do is to learn about agile. I mean really learn about it, not read a single article in a magazine about how agile is the next big thing. There are lots of great online resources for learning. Check out agile websites, blogs covering agile or agile groups on Yahoo! Groups. You will find lots enthusiastic people just waiting to help out.
- Start small: Start small, refine, repeat. Implementing an agile process is not something that can be done throughout the organization in one shot. Accept that the first few months will be unproductive as everyone comes to grips with agile, its culture and its values. Choose a small project as a prototype, and iteratively refine the process. When you are comfortable, move on to another project, then another.
- Examine the organization culture: A big stumbling block is reconciling the existing organization culture with the values of agile processes. Transitioning to agile involves change, and like all change it is easy to see things not work out at the start, get frustrated and return to known, comfortable ways of doing things. Take some time to learn the values of agile, and how it can be incorporated into the organization.
Taken from blog: http://toolsforagile.com/blog/archives/6
Muqeet Khan
Why Mercurial?
Mercurial [1] is a free/open source software for distributed revision control. It has cross-platform support, and is implemented using the Python programming language. It is highly recommended and very useful because:
- It is inline with agile development methodologies, and facilitates continuous integration process [2].
- It is extremely fast, easy to learn, and use.
- A single central repository is never a bottleneck as team members can keep their own repositories for development/testing needs.
- It is free/open source software, that is thoroughly verified, robust, and proven. Moreover, with the source code it gives you the freedom to make customizations.
- Being cross-platform, it has support on different operating systems, and plugin support is available in different integrated development environments.
- A network is not required during work, as one can work offline, and commit changes to code.
- A team workflow is not limited by a central repository, but, can be customized depending on the project, and team members.
- There are plenty of extensions available that can be used with the tool [3]
- Documentation and support is excellent [4].
References:
[1] Mercurial. http://mercurial.selenic.com/
[2] Continuous Integration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_integration
[3] Mercurial Extensions. http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/UsingExtensions
[4] Mercurial: The Definitive Guide. http://hgbook.red-bean.com/read/index.html
-Shakthi K
Microsoft WHQL Certification
The Windows logo signifies the compatibility and reliability of systems and devices with Windows operating system. It gives customers confidence that your product is thoroughly tested with Microsoft-provided tools and ensures a good user experience. The devices or drivers have to pass Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) certification process to get the Logo or certificate.
The OEM or device manufacturers will have to pass WHQL tests to get their device LOGOed. Windows device driver vendors can get their software certified to avoid users being prompted with a message box mentioning that the driver is not certified and giving an option for cancelling the driver installation. The WHQL can be approached for certifying software, device or system. Following are the Advantages:
- Customer confidence that the systems and devices they choose have passed Microsoft-designed tests for reliability and compatibility
- Drivers can be placed on Windows update site for distribution
- Support for your systems and devices through Windows Error Reporting
- A variety of marketing benefits
Windows Logo program work flow:
Preparatory Work
- Obtain your VeriSign ID
- Establish Winqual accounts
- Winqual billing
- Sign legal agreements
- Review logo program requirements on LogoPoint
Validate device and driver
- Download the Windows Logo Kit
- Deploy the Driver Test Manager (DTM)
- Run the tests
- Diagnose, resolve issues, retest
- Apply filters
- View WLK filters information on Driver Test Manager (DTM) filter page
- Install the latest filters
- Using WLK filters to triage test logs
- Export passing results to a CPK file
Submit your results to Winqual
- Sign in to Winqual and download the Winqual Submission Tool (WST)
- Install WST
- Create a CAB file using the Winqual Submission Tool (WST)
- Upload the CAB to Winqual
- Receive notification
https://winqual.microsoft.com can be referred for further information regarding WHQL certification. Following are the support information contacts:
- WHQL legal agreements such as the logo license agreement: whqlegal@microsoft.com
- Winqual online submission site winqual@microsoft.com
- invoices or fees: whqlbill@microsoft.com
