Product development as a value factor
Projects or products: the question is now
Product management and project management are two generally accepted disciplines for directing efforts toward a goal. Tech companies generally choose between project and product mindsets in software development, and attitudes toward both have changed over the years.
In the early days of software development, project-centric thinking was prevalent because it complemented the waterfall methodology that software development teams typically implemented to develop large software projects. With the rise of iterative Agile and DevOps, development teams are now prioritizing product management thinking. A product mindset focuses attention on creating value for the business and the customer, not on an arbitrary milestone.
As companies move from a project mindset to a product mindset, software quality control professionals must connect code changes to user experience and business results. Although the two approaches often complement each other, the main difference between project and product thinking today is where companies put their focus and how they organize their teams.
Today we will talk about product development from the company's point of view, where this point of view can give a bigger picture to all developers and enable them to better understand and see the changes that are happening within companies from a business point of view.
We spoke with the representatives of the M&I Systems Group company about the way of product development, as well as the development of the company through product development, in order to find out how it is necessary to develop a product that can respond to the needs of new clients.
Guided by the idea that product development is the lifeblood of companies and society as such, in 1991 M&I Systems Group entered the young IT market by developing the first local ERP solution.
For three decades of operation, M&I Systems Group has positioned itself as a leader in the development and implementation of business solutions in various industries and business processes, and as an avid investor in crypto-trading platforms and blockchain technologies. Following modern market concepts, the M&I System team has helped hundreds of companies to transform their business, thereby continuously creating new opportunities for progress, innovation and growth.
Value for clients, a step forward to growth
M&I Systems Group states that over the years, while developing their own ERP solution, as well as many other products, they encountered various iterations of product development with the aim of creating new value for clients and, inevitably, increasing the value of the company.
They further state that as companies grow, they become more complex, resulting in higher costs and reduced speed and agility. Through scaling, functional silos emerge that can create operational boundaries and knowledge silos with multiple bottlenecks, reducing flow and quality. All of these aspects work against each other, hindering the larger shared goal of delivering value to customers and operating effectively as a company.
What they recognized as a way to overcome this was to become product-driven and embrace a customer-focused product business model. In this context, the term "product" includes platforms or services that deliver repeatable value to an internal or external customer. It is necessary to raise the strategic goals of the organization — supported by improving the transparency and interface so that everyone can see how they connect to the delivery of value. This enables the unification of the business with the needs of the clients.
With that, they point out that a product-driven company focuses beyond the sales transaction on a long-term relationship with customers. Customer experience, insights and support are essential components of product management. These are the companies that use data-driven feedback to grow, learn, innovate and evolve, and then generate value anew.
This also affects the satisfaction of employees, because they are also directly informed of the necessity of changes and the reason for the direction of development in which the company is developing. And product-driven companies themselves can increase the ability to meet customer needs and increase long-term value. This is supported by research from Dimension Data, which states that 92% of companies that improve the customer experience see an increase in customer loyalty, 84% see an increase in revenue, and even 79% see cost savings.
So, as they state from M&I Systems Group, precisely for reasons of maintaining competitiveness on the market, together with their development team, they decided to develop in this direction. As they further state, it is clear to their developers and development teams that only companies that become product-driven should be in the strongest position to survive in the current challenging economic conditions and continue to grow and increase value in the long term.
Development of internal talents through strategic partnerships
A key part of the company's development is represented by developers, whose work enabled the development of products and services in a significant part of the US market in the financial technology sector. According to the company, a direct incentive for the development of developers within the company has allowed them to expand their product portfolio with expertise in the field of cryptocurrency trading tools over the past year.
Following the idea of the necessity of talent development, and as a logical next step after many years of successful business in the Fintech sector, the company M&I Systems Group announced the opening of the Center for the Development of Financial Technology in 2022, which will begin work in September, in the company's new corporate headquarters in Novi Sad.
What they announced is great news for all developers who want to work in the world of finance. Namely, as stated by M&I Systems Group, by expanding the strategic partnership with Sterling Trading Tech (STT), a global provider of professional technology solutions for stock trading, a development center for over 100 developers will be opened.
"The formation of the STT development center in Serbia was the logical next step of the very successful long-term cooperation with M&I Systems Group," says Farid Naib, President of the Executive Board of Sterling Trading Tech.
And we can hear about the importance of this cooperation for developers directly from the president of M&I Systems Group
"This is a big step, both for our company and for the entire IT industry in Serbia, because by working in the STT development center, our employees will have the opportunity to learn from the best, but also to trace the path of new changes in the Fintech sector themselves." says Vladan Balaban, president of M&I Systems Group.
If everything you read interested you and you want to know more about what it's like to work at M&I Systems Group, then go to the company's Joberty page and find out everything you're interested in.
