Read the latest blogs, news and views from Infomentum.

AWS Service Roles allow services to securely interact with other AWS services on your behalf by assuming roles with the necessary permissions. This simplifies access management and reduces the need to handle long-term credentials.

CloudHub 2.0 works on top of an AWS EKS service, so we can leverage AWS Service Roles to connect our APIs with many other AWS services used by our integrations, such as SQS, S3, DynamoDB, Secret Manager, etc.

In this article, we will see how it works and how to implement it.

In today's fast-paced world, we often hear about the importance of mental health. Yet, how often do we consider the profound connection between our mental and physical well-being? On last week's World Mental Health Day, as we reflected on mental health and its importance, I wanted to shed light on the often-overlooked relationship between mental and physical health, and why taking care of both is essential for leading a fulfilling life.

In higher education, managing student data is often seen as a challenge of consolidating records across various platforms - from admissions and financial aid systems to student management portals and alumni databases. For many institutions, the complexity of these systems leads to fragmented data, making it hard to get a unified view of students and make timely, data-driven decisions.

As a project manager, I often have multiple projects running parallel to one another. Before building a solid approach to monitor all these tasks and activities in progress, I always worried I might miss something.

Everyone has, at one point or another, experienced a period of agonising waiting. Whether it be awaiting the results of a job interview, exam results or even waiting in an online queue to get the chance to grab some concert tickets, I’m sure that everyone can agree waiting around for things to happen is a deeply unpleasant feeling. Certainly for me, sitting through the week before A-Level results day felt (almost) worse than taking the exams did! Now imagine how stressful it must be for victims of crimes who are awaiting updates to their investigations.

Understandably, many people want to check in on the progress of their ongoing investigations: in fact, one of our clients found that 20% of inbound calls were from victims seeking updates to their cases. If victims of crime were able to access this information in a more timely manner, it would open up police time that could be allocated to support additional tasks, as well as help reduce stress for people going through the post crime journey.

Working in the automation space is both exciting and challenging. In a recent hyperautomation project with a client, I was provided invaluable insights into the complexities and nuances of automating business processes using MuleSoft RPA.

Here's a detailed look at my experience, the challenges faced and the lessons learned, along with a project glance on automating quotes in Excel and PDF formats.

It’s been some time since my last blog on Anypoint Code Builder, so today I'll be guiding you through the most recent changes that have been made to it. The latest release was in June, and to say it was a big one is an understatement!

Occasionally, I’ll come across a project where I encounter an interesting challenge or two. In one of these instances, I was working on an automation project for a customer who wanted to ingest all of their quotes from different suppliers into their Salesforce application. The quote documents were highly unstructured PDFs and Excel files, requiring the design of a bot which would extract data from these files and ensure that mandatory information was loaded into the Salesforce application using OCR technology.

Introduction

When I embarked on my latest project involving MuleSoft's Robotic Process Automation (RPA), little did I know it would be one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences of my professional journey. As someone who enjoys solving complex puzzles, I was eager to dive into the intricacies of RPA; however, I soon realised this project would test my skills and patience in ways I hadn't anticipated. Balancing work and personal life became crucial, as late nights and early mornings became routine. However, with a steadfast commitment to overcoming each obstacle, the end result was immensely satisfying.

Introduction

Not long ago, our team came across a surprising new issue when running bots in live VMs. To provide some context, by default each VM deployed for automation has 2 user accounts that can work concurrently. In this case, we deployed 2 parallel instances of the bot to optimise the throughput. 

Hi fellow marketers! I'm a Marketing Manager here at Infomentum, and today I want to talk about the different ways AI is revolutionising the world of content development. If you're passionate about creating engaging content (and in marketing, who isn’t?), you’ll want to be part of the conversation!

It’s been some time since my last blog on Anypoint Code Builder. Since then, there have been a number of changes made to the IDE, so I will guide you through the recent updates that have been made and compare it to previous versions. 

Originally posted on Another Integration Blog.

Throughout the last three years of an engagement with one of our customers, we’ve migrated many interfaces to Mule 4. In this blog, I’ll share insights into my experience working on the design and development of Mule 4 interfaces.

Composer Flows may be configured to be triggered by a scheduler, an event in the target system or HTTP invocation. Salesforce Flow actions can make HTTP callouts, so in this blog we will be demonstrating step-by-step how to integrate MuleSoft Composer with Salesforce Flow Builder for dynamic system interactions.

In the ever-evolving landscape of automation, the integration of bots across multiple systems has become a necessity for efficiency and productivity. However, as this technology progresses, a critical challenge has emerged as well. It's become increasingly difficult to balance the benefits of formatted and structured information for human use while also working towards the reduction of semantic resolution.

My journey in information technology

I graduated from university the year that Google launched Google Earth. And four years before that, my high school librarian told us about these new things called ‘search engines’ and how she thought they would change the world. Being from California, I was in the heart of the modern technological renaissance – but even then a career in ‘IT’ was never something that crossed my mind.

Ah, the age-old debate of working from home versus working in the office. It's like choosing between sweatpants and business casual, between Zoom meetings and water cooler banter. Now that the dust has settled on the post-COVID working landscape, let's take a lighthearted look at the differences between these two worlds. Yes, it’s another ‘post covid reflection’. You’ve heard loads, I know.

In the fast-paced world of marketing, many people don’t realise what the true foundation is of a successful campaign strategy. While flashy creatives and catchy taglines draw attention, there is a much more essential key to conversion: clean data.

Introduction

These days, data is everything. Organisations are always looking for new methods to use big data to make decisions in today’s environment. However, managing massive amounts of data is easier said than done. Never fear! This is where MuleSoft, an advanced integration platform, comes into play.

Introduction

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) progresses through distinct phases in its project life cycle. When it enters the production deployment phase, the bots are deployed onto dedicated machines to carry out end-to-end automation. It is at this stage that scheduling comes into the picture, guiding bots on when to run and on which machine.

The scheduling step is relevant for bots that run in an unattended/automatic way at specific intervals (often many times a day!). However, it does not apply to bots that are attended or triggered by human or system actions.

Welcome, dear reader, to the fascinating world of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), where bots and humans join forces to streamline business processes. While the term "automation" might conjure images of futuristic robots taking over the world, the reality is a bit more down-to-earth – and requires a stellar team of tech-savvy individuals.

Introduction

Integration paradigms are constantly adapting to shifting business needs and advancing technology. To tackle high complexity and the demand of today's data-driven environment, there are a few modern integration patterns. Check out several of the newest integration paradigms on the rise:

Plunging head-first into the world of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) would make anyone feel uneasy. With a scientific and mathematical background and experience with Python, I was overwhelmed by the unfamiliar terrain of new technology in the corporate tech world.

But, interested in the world of RPA and how it could potentially transform the way we work, I adjusted my mindset to being ok with feeling uncomfortable.

What does Anypoint Code Builder look like for the Desktop release?

All marketers know a Content Management System (CMS) is a business's digital backbone. Whether working for a startup or an established enterprise, managing content seamlessly is key to enabling success. Moving to a new CMS or upgrading your existing one is a hefty task. When done poorly, there are major consequences for your team (and your wallet!). Fear not - this is where certified partners come into play!

Are you considering building internal IT support? Hold on - this won’t be as cost-efficient as you think! While you might believe in-house is the winning strategy for your technology, there are dozens of hidden expenses you’ll be surprised by.

It has been a year since I joined the Salesforce Ecosystem, and despite the eventful past year, I recently had the opportunity to attend one of the big Salesforce events, Salesforce World Tour 2023, for the first time. The day was filled with action and had a lot going on simultaneously, making it a highly recommended experience for anyone involved with or interested in learning more about Salesforce.

In the first part of the blog, Let's start with MuleSoft Anypoint Code Builder, I covered the basics of Anypoint Code Builder. In the second part, How to Design an API in Anypoint Code Builder, I explained how to design an API and create RAML specifications. Today, we will use these specifications to implement, test and deploy an API.

In the first part of the blog, I described the basics of Anypoint Code Builder. Today, I will guide you through the design phase of the ‘Hello World’ project.

Have you ever come across Supermums? Get ready for an incredible journey as I reveal the life-changing impact of Supermums. From moments of doubt to a thriving career come along as I embrace the unknown and explore endless possibilities.

Imagine a cold December day. The elderly lady had been saving on gas for months to finally heat her home on Christmas Day. Living in her small social flat, she silently endured the chill because she struggled to afford both food and warmth, determined to remain independent.

Some time ago MuleSoft announced the release of its new IDE - Anypoint Code Builder. In case you are still not familiar with its purpose and capabilities, keep reading this blog. Let’s get started 😊

MuleSoft Composer is a no-code integration platform that enables users to integrate data and apps easily. The process starts by building flows using various pre-built connectors, including Salesforce, Workday, Slack, MuleSoft RPA, and others.

In this blog, I will describe the API-based integration between Breathe HR and Tempo with MuleSoft Composer. Breathe HR is a cloud-based HR software, and Tempo is a time-planning and logging app integrated with our Jira.

Overview of Smart Sensors

IoT-powered smart sensors are revolutionising how local councils and housing associations monitor their managed properties. The wide range of data, including temperature, pressure, humidity, light and motion, is sent to devices like smartphones, tablets and back-end servers, providing real-time measurements, analysis and visualisation. Glasgow City Council, Stirling Council, Leeds City Council and Riverside Group have all jumped on the IoT bandwagon, recognising the potential for improved health and safety compliance, better services for residents and cost savings on proactive maintenance and repairs.

Exposing APIs to our customers and consumers using a vanity domain, like *.acme-apis.com instead of the default domain *.cloudhub.io, is now easier in CloudHub 2.0.

Today we'll complete the automation of our internal celebration process. In the previous blog, we explained how to invoke a bot from the MuleSoft Composer to discover the next upcoming birthday or work anniversary. It is time to create a robot responsible for ordering cupcakes from Lola's website to mark the special occasion.

In the previous blog, Birthday wishes from MuleSoft Composer, we explained how to use Composer and its connectors to configure and set up simple process automation. We automated repetitive tasks of tracking and sending birthday and work anniversary wishes to our employees. Today we utilise MuleSoft further to deliver end-to-end automation of the complete process. In addition to messages, we will build Bots to order and post delicious Lola's cupcakes for our special occasions.

What are microservices 

Microservices is an architectural style that structures an application as a collection of services that are

CloudHub V2 arrived with a new architecture and a lot of new features. Let's explore in this tutorial some new features available while deploying to CloudHub V2 using maven.

Insurance claims, invoices, various forms and applications - every organisation deals with a wide range of unstructured documents. Although manual extraction of critical information is still typical, many departments invest in automating such processes.

With the start of the pandemic, digital learning has become a new norm for most students. The digital approach demonstrated so many benefits that it remained in various forms even after the lockdown. There is a rise in hybrid learning when classes consist of in-person and online students. Not to forget about a blended study that includes online and on-campus courses.

This World Mental Health day, we're talking about the effect of the winter period. The winter months can take their toll for many reasons - shorter days, lack of vitamin D, more time spent indoors, and, need we mention, the increased bills.

MuleSoft Composer is a drag-and-drop tool for connecting systems without coding! Although Composer is usually used to automate business processes, I’ve successfully applied it to streamline birthday and anniversary wishes.

MuleSoft helps organisations enable hyperautomation and derive maximum benefits from automation and integration. Only recently MuleSoft launched MuleSoft RPA which is well integrated into the MuleSoft ecosystem. They also partner with various companies to enrich their automation capabilities even further.

In the previous blog Publish MuleSoft RPA into Exchange and invoke it from a Mule API I demonstrated the step-by-step process of calling a MuleSoft bot from a Mule API.

I often felt a step behind my team at the start of new projects implementing system integration. Such projects are very technical and could be overwhelming for a Project Manager like me. I was drowning in tech details and scary-sounding abbreviations.

In the second part of my blog about MuleSoft RPA in action, I’d like to show the complete automation process - from process evaluation to design, build and execution. I hope it will help you see the potential of Mulesoft RPA and how you can apply it to improve the efficiency of your processes.

After testing MuleSoft RPA (Robotic Process Automation), the new automation tool released only a few weeks ago, I cannot wait to share my thoughts. But let me start with a few tips for creating a stable RPA automation:

I'm thrilled to be accepted as a MuleSoft Mentor! Sharing knowledge is a great way to help and give back to those who once supported me.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools are designed to carry out all human repetitive tasks. Bots can retrieve information from legacy and modern applications and extract data from emails, documents and even web pages. They interact with applications using keyboard and mouse clicks just like we humans do. MuleSoft is a new player in the RPA market. MuleSoft RPA was released only a few weeks ago, and the great news is that it is fully integrated with MuleSoft Anypoint Platform and Composer.

Navigating the world of manufacturing can be a complex and exciting experience. Whilst this could be said for most companies and industries, this proved more so the case when Infomentum recently delivered a proof of concept. This organisation not only finds itself at the heart of UK-based manufacturing but also at a junction between academia and government research. A solution was required to bridge the gap from both a technological and operational perspective.

Event-Driven Architecture allows you to create more resilient and scalable integrations for an infinite number of uses-cases. This approach enables us to develop modular and decoupled solutions providing real-time (or near real-time) connections.

Remember the famous scene with Tom Cruise hanging onto the cliff's side by only his fingertips? The bravest members of the team Infomentum were up to this challenge. No, we didn't fly to Norway; instead, we went to the City Bouldering as a part of our Wellness Program!

The highlight of my week? My first MuleSoft Connect 2022! It was the first in-person event in almost 3(!)years. So, in case you missed it, I would like to share what I learned and enjoyed the most during that eventful day.

I've recently had the opportunity to reflect upon our annual staff appraisal process, specifically around the quality of feedback. One frequent observation is that reviews and comments often lack details, making appraisals challenging. It is especially true for managers who don't work closely with the appraisee and rely entirely on their colleagues' feedback to assess their progress. To address this issue, my colleague and I were asked to revisit the process and suggest what could be improved.

'We are planning to upgrade to Mule 4 in a few months. Meanwhile, the development is on hold because it is impossible to find any Mule 3 certified resources. Can you help us?' The head of the integration programme was crying for help. Looks like it is a common problem as many organisations still rely heavily on the old Mule 3 version. 

When the connected digital experience has become "a must" rather than "a nice to be", integration solutions are in high demand. APIs are now almost the de factor way for various platforms and systems to communicate and exchange information. So, what happens when a public API fails? In 2014 Gartner estimated it to be about $300,000 per hour!

How does your team get into the Christmas spirit? With it being the season of giving back, what better way than spending a day helping a local charity! So, when an invitation from MuleSoft came in we didn’t hesitate—helping an urban farm for a day? We are in!

It's been almost two years since our ways of working have changed completely. Although the offices are opening their doors again, online meetings are part of our working life, and they are here to stay.

As a Test Analyst at Infomentum, I generally follow a formal structured test process, one that is promoted by certification bodies such as ISTQB. It ensures that we adhere to the best practices and verify that the software under test meets our requirements. But is it always enough? In my experience, no. On occasion, a more experimental method of testing is a more suitable approach for that given project. Great news, it also fits nicely with an agile development cycle!

We caught up with Sikander Sehrawat, who joined our Development team as an intern and quickly progressed into a full-time Associate position. He talks about what it was like to start his first working experience during a pandemic and his journey to a certified MuleSoft Developer.

We developers love to use and create automated processes! If something is repetitive, we have an urge to write a bash script, a gulp/grunt task, etc. It is in our nature! If we can automate, we will automate.

Exciting news to share! We are launching a new MuleSoft Online Group dedicated to introducing Java Developers to the MuleSoft world. 

What is your favourite part of an IT project?

Mine has always been writing user stories. It is when all the ideas take shape and begin their journey to a shiny new product. I know that not everybody feels the same way. I understand why, especially when it comes to writing User Stories for back-end systems, for example, APIs, as these can be particularly challenging.

One of the things I love about MuleSoft (aside from the cool tech) is how they engage their partner network. From the big Systems Integrators and the more boutique players like Infomentum, everyone gets involved! In March, there was no time for opposition (although still a fair bit of competition) as the Partner network came together to raise money for charities aiming to end Child Poverty.

Here is a challenge for you - how to create an API that retrieves data from a cloud-based system with no external APIs? In the situations like this, it would make a perfect sense to access the data via the system's UI using robotic automation bots. Your API can invoke a bot to read the required information. To implement this solution and enable APIs to Bots requests, we need an API-RPA connector.

Diversity is in Infomentum's DNA. From our Directors to team members, we strongly believe in a multi-cultural and inclusive work environment. It's the reason we became a Skilled Worker Visa (formerly a Tier 2 General work visa) sponsorship company.

I could never imagine missing my morning train commute (or at least parts of it), small chats with the friendly train station staff, a nod or a smile of a bus driver and the morning rush at the Starbucks near our City office.

Think strategy: quieter times are not for resting.

This year global pandemic has affected most businesses, and Infomentum is no exception. At the beginning of the spring lockdown, the uncertainty of the future put most organisations into some level of hibernation. For a short period, our team was not as utilised as usual. What did we do? We focused on what would benefit us in the long run: a new strategy, team training, enhancing our internal processes and knowledge repositories. One of the projects that ticked almost all boxes was the revamp of our internal Centre of Excellence (CoE). What is a CoE you ask? It is a cross-functional team responsible for creating and maintaining a centralised Knowledge Hub that offers API projects' best practices, governance, templates, and much more.

Do you know many MuleSoft developers with MSc in Physics and Medical Engineering? Meet Olga Kepa - an example of how a career can change in a drastic way when you pursue your dream.

One of the main features of Oracle APEX is the Interactive Grid (IG). For those unaware, it works as a CRUD to interact with any data from the database. There are many great features readily available in the IG. Search is one of such out-of-the-box capabilities, which means no extra development is required!

Are you in the middle of working out your integration strategy and selecting a suitable platform? It's a serious and long-term commitment, so wouldn't it be great to test a chosen platform first? Validate it by building fully-functioning API integrations for your specific use case?

Public sector customers will now be able to purchase a range of services from digital transformation consultancy Infomentum on the UK government’s G-Cloud 12 framework. We received the news that our application was successful earlier this month, with services going live on the marketplace today. 

Testing is a critical part of software development, ensuring early detection of bugs or any other problems within your code. However, for most of us it's the less favorite activity; it feels tedious and often repetitive. Furthermore, creating test for a large block of code can be troublesome, especially for beginners.

API-led integration can propel your organisation to new heights; better customer service, increased efficiency and innovation are only a few of the benefits of a successful initiative.

How do you keep your retrospectives fresh and the team engaged? It is a challenge many agile teams face. As organisations adjust to running almost every meeting online, the issue of conference call fatigue is making this even more important. To run effective agile retrospectives in any climate you need an efficient delivery approach that will spur your team. Remote or face to face, it is essential to keep the retrospective short, focused and engaging - read on to find out how.

The last few months have been challenging for most Sales teams, and ours has been no exception. The uncertainty of the economic climate has led many businesses to hibernate. In the space of a couple of weeks, the market went quiet; projects were put on hold, budgets cut.

In my experience, when working with Interactive Grid, most of the times, we need to open a modal popup to interact with selected records (single or multi selection). For example, let say we have an Interactive Grid listing some records and you want a button which bulk updates all selected rows with the same value.

The weeks preceding the lockdown were tense. As a CTO at Infomentum, I am responsible not only for the internal IT but also for providing our customers with reliable and efficient co-managed services. My team had many ongoing projects, customers on 24/7 support contracts, and, on top of it, manage our transition to remote working to take care of. This was no easy task, but I was determined, there was no way we were going to let anyone down!

Unit testing has always been an integral part of software engineering because it ensures that problems in the code are isolated and fixed long before they become an issue in production. With the introduction and adoption of Agile framework, unit testing has changed dramatically because of the test-driven development (TDD) methodology. TDD is a software development strategy in which unit tests are used to drive the development process. In this blog, I explain how to practice TDD and share some tips on how to write great unit tests using MUnit.

While crime rates in the UK have dropped by more than 20%, cybercrime seems to be on the rise. Phishing related attacks are up by a staggering 667% compared to pre-pandemic February, and more than £2M has been reported lost by victims of Coronavirus-related scams. Despite common belief, not all cybercriminals are technology wizards who spend their days in a basement hacking into government servers. Some use simple tricks and social engineering, which hardly require technical expertise.

In our previous blogs, we described the transition to running projects remotely, explained the adjustments we made to keep effective communication with our distributed team and dived deep into practicalities of remote Agile Sprint Planning. We initially thought of dedicating this blog to remote agile stand-ups but in the end, decided to change the focus slightly. At times when 35-40% of adults in the UK have reported concerns about their mental health, and every second person worries about his/her wellbeing, it's crucial to support our employees. So, what exactly can be done? When it comes to staff emotional health, we believe there is no 'fits all' solution; it is a combination of small adjustments that can be weaved into every meeting or team interaction.

According to the 6th principle of the Agile Manifesto: "The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation." So, does it mean that managing agile projects in the new world of large-scale remote working is impossible? Our answer is no! In the previous blog, we talked about how we ensure efficient communication with the home-based teams. In this blog, we discuss the important adjustments we’ve made to our remote Sprint Planning meetings as part of our Agile project delivery.

If you read my previous blog post on competing in the API economy, you probably have a feel for just how important APIs are for modern organisations. Implementing an API strategy unlocks internal assets and makes you a competitive and relevant force in our diverse and fast-changing tech landscape.

There is still much confusion about the differences and commonalities between SOA (service-oriented architecture), microservices, APIs and, even, point-to-point integration.

Today, I want to explain how to use pom.xml to resolve APIs' common dependencies that might lead to duplication and mismatch in MuleSoft Mule4.

The pom.xml file contains the core information about a project and its configuration details, including its dependencies, build directory, source directory, test source directory, plugin, goals etc. Maven reads the pom.xml file and then executes the goal.

The quality of communication within a project team is often the most important aspect in the successful delivery of any project. Since our switch to remote working at the start of the pandemic, we’ve been faced with the challenge of using our project management tools in different ways to ensure that the quality of our communication and collaboration doesn’t suffer.

COVID-19 has turned our lives upside down. Just a few weeks ago, companies had to quickly transition all employees to work remotely. As businesses and people are gradually adjusting to the new circumstances and realising the benefits of working from home, many predict that this operation model is here to stay far beyond the crisis. 

Notifications could be a very powerful tool to get visibility into business-related events inside your application.

The Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted our everyday lives, both businesses and individuals are still adapting to the new reality. While the number of cases is still climbing, at times it feels like there is no end of the lockdown and crisis in sight. But it`s not all doom and gloom, we've also seen businesses and individuals come together to fight the virus, support and help each other in these difficult times.

Internship is a two-way street. Mentoring young people is an empowering experience for the employees, while for interns, it's an excellent opportunity to learn new skills and get a taste of a potential career.

Successful software delivery is based on careful planning, accurate estimation and a good understanding of what is in and out of scope. In traditional project management, projects are broken into work packages and assigned to specialists for sizing and estimation. These packages are in turn broken up into progressively smaller modules to get increasingly more accurate sizing. After that, all the sizings are rolled up, and a project plan is reviewed and monitored.

MuleSoft has exposed an API that provides access to Anypoint MQ administrative functionality. For those who are not familiar with Anypoint MQ, it's a multi-tenant, cloud messaging service that enables customers to perform advanced asynchronous messaging scenarios between their applications. Using this API you can perform a series of actions that otherwise would only be accessible through the Anypoint Platform's web interface. And since many organisations prefer to externalise and automate this type of processes using scripts, I would like to explain how to use all four basic CRUD methods (Create, Read, Update and Delete) using this API.

Because I know I am more than just my anxiety,
and one day I hope to be free of it entirely.
But until then, I will keep telling myself, quietly,
I am stronger than this. I am stronger than my anxiety.
       by Tiffaney L. Ganci

"Your most unhappy customers are the greatest source of learning."
quote from a wise Customer Service Manager

Which type of customer are you?

Imagine you receive an email with the subject "Customer Satisfaction Survey". How does it make you feel? How do you respond?

Imagine a typical scrum scene - the team gathers around the board for the daily standup, one of the team members gives his/her overview of the matters at hand. Things seem to be going well until somebody mentions a dreaded 'blocker' word. Suddenly the team panics, the ears of the scrum master perk up, and madness ensues. 

Recently we attended and exhibited at the Government ICT, one of the most significant IT Public sector events in the UK. When listening to the keynotes and speaking to IT leaders from a variety of governmental bodies, the issue of citizen data sharing often came up. And no wonder, by leveraging its data organisations can provide betters service to the citizens, improve outcomes and drive efficiencies.

Not all user stories are equal. Some may be larger and more complicated than others. The challenge in agile delivery is to keep stories at the right size. That way, they are easily understood and delivered. Those that are too large pose a risk. Wherever possible, you should break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces. In this blog, I will explore factors that might lead to user stories being too 'large'?

Are post-it's enough?

Recently a few of our team members attended Celonis SuperFluid Tour in London, where we found that post-it notes and a whiteboard are still one of their biggest competitors. Celonis, for those unaware, offer a solution, powered by process mining technology that empowers companies to visualise their processes, thus providing insights to which of these can be improved. It can come as a surprise, that in the age of digital transformation, many organisations are satisfied with getting the room's opinion during a whiteboard and/or post-it note session as the best process discovery technique.

At Infomentum, we love to share. We do it daily with our clients through close collaboration with their development teams, training sessions, Agile sprints and support calls, etc. Our team members also share by regularly organising charitable events and donation initiatives. On this occasion, we had a chance to give something a little different – share our knowledge and experience of Agile methodology.

Do you know what your customers need? Not what they want, or would like, but what they need. It is not always obvious. Faced with a complex mix of competing priorities and challenges, some companies may think they need one thing. In reality, however, they need something entirely different.

Today I was greeted by a happy grin on Dan’s face, Dan Shepherd is our Head of Delivery. He and his team had a reason to smile - in one day they received fantastic feedback from several of our customers.

Few events in life have the impact of starting a new job. As any career person can attest, acclimating to a new workplace or role requires patience. It’s a social and intellectual challenge. This consideration led me to a simple concept, a modus operandi for adjusting to a new organization.

The artist Pablo Picasso once said you should learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist. It’s clear he wasn’t in charge of a large corporation, though. Breaking the rules in business is costly, and it’s getting even more so. According to research by Thomson Reuters, 61% of compliance and risk practitioners expected to spend more on complying with rules and regulations in 2019 than they had in 2018.

Many business documents, from invoices to medical records, are boring, necessary and tedious to deal with. And until recently only humans had the ability to process them, locking smart people into low-value work. But now, technology has got to the point where it can not only read standard documents but also pick relevant information out from images and designs in complex layouts.

The Terminator has a lot to answer for. As the prospect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes a reality in the workplace, barely a day goes by without a headline warning of some machine-led threat to jobs and livelihoods. It is indeed likely systems integration based on AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), an emerging form of business transformation based on the software robots, will change how we work and live. But not in the doomsday-scenario way often portrayed.

A week after I attended Getahead festival, my mind is still racing with all the amazingly interesting information and insights that came my way during the course of the 24-hour event. I went along to see what it was all about and how our Wellness Programme can benefit.

Recently, one of our customers requested to consume RPC-style web services built on top of a legacy system. Unfortunately, I then discovered that RPC WSDL were not supported by the Web Service Consumer connector in Mule 4. Want to know the solution?

We catch up with Nasima Alam, who after taking a career break in IT to look after her young family, joined Infomentum as a Test Analyst. We find out about her onboarding experience at Infomentum and how she balances her role as a working mum in Tech.

As the old saying goes 'calm waters never made a good sailor'. Applying this maritime proverb to a somewhat different, but none the less hazardous field like IT project management, certainly has its merit. The reality of IT project management in the modern age is a tale of delayed project go-lives and project completion beyond the original budget and time frame.

'There is nothing more powerful in any organisation than having all employees rowing fiercely in the same direction', wrote Brent Gleeson, the founder of Taking Point Leadership. The same can be also applied to teams within any organisation. Long meetings, endless back and forth emails, misunderstandings, and interruptions for impromptu catch ups are symptoms of an inefficient internal department.

The goal of the Head of Operations, was to create a working environment that nurtures collaboration and confidence, allowing efficient and effective delivery and continuous improvement.

In our study conducted by Censuswide, 1002 desk-based office workers were quizzed on their attitudes to websites, technology and the workplace. Over half of the respondents to the survey were defined as Generation C. But just how are we defining them?

Never as a society have we been as open as we are today, though it’s a movement that has seemingly bypassed the public sector. In the third and final blog post in our series around thinking smart in the public sector, we look at the main challenges and barriers when it comes to data sharing. We also suggest ways and methods of how the UK public sector can embrace a mindset of collaboration for a more positive future for all.

For years, marketers have looked to the latest generation to lead their branding efforts and define the latest trends. We’ve been through the baby boomers, then Generation X, Y and finally Z. So the question is: what next?

Red Nose day sees Infomentum raises £400 for Comic Relief - with a few red noses, some good (and bad) jokes and the Fantastic Five taking a pie in the face!

Why chatbots?

It is all about visual appeal, fonts, colours and layout when we build web pages and mobile applications. However, when it comes to chatbots, the focus is different. The majority of chatbots run on Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, Alexa or other social platforms with the focus centred around the bot's personality and its tone of voice. In other words, it is all about your audience, and how to build your chatbot around their needs.

After years of austerity, the public sector is crying out for solutions that can help solve its issues quicker and more cost-effectively. Yet, while there is a multitude of choices available in the form of digitally native businesses, they’re not being considered as credible options. This post will examine why is it so difficult for the public sector to engage with SMEs?

Generation C - these people are your customers, your employees and maybe even yourself. Generation C is the connected generation; they are digital natives who are completely au fait with the latest gadgets and technologies.

Never has there been so much pressure to do more with less. Nowhere is this more acutely felt than in the public sector. For an element of the UK economy not widely renowned for a track record of innovation and prudent purse string management, that represents somewhat of a major challenge. Yet finance is not the only issue. There are other pressing concerns: how to best use and share data, engaging with local SMEs and disruptive technology companies and re-calibrating the public sector approach to operations in a digital and social age. We’ll be looking at all these topics in our forthcoming blog series. Naturally, that means we’ll be kicking off with cows in Norway.

With Generation C already a huge demographic which is growing every day, businesses need to ensure that they are capturing Gen C’s attention, whether as their customer, potential customer or employee.

ISO 27001 is an international standard with global recognition that gives organisations a clear framework to follow for their Information Security Management System (ISMS), it is also a business enabler.

Infomentum is very proud to achieve the internationally recognised certification of ISO 27001 in February for the second consecutive year. The certification has confirmed our compliance to the standard with no non-conformities identified. 

At Infomentum we have successfully moved towards a centralised logged infrastructure where systems, application, network and security logs are parsed and made available in one central point. Using components such as Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana, our logging infrastructure provides us the ability to apply filters to perform queries and basic trends analysis or counts.

One of the challenges we faced was shipping Windows Server logs from a logfile onto Logstash’s syslog listener, and we found a tool that does exactly that - nxlog-ce-2.9.1716

Our lives might be going digital, but what does that mean for the physical environments in which we live, work and play? Whether checking air quality or preventing street violence, what is the public sector doing to harness new technologies that deliver a better citizen experience; not just in interactions with services, but in the infrastructure that supports our lives? From housing to transport, how are these connected communities being brought to life by Edge computing and IoT in the UK?

Digital promotions are failing to meet expectations, with up to 1 in 3 customers considering advertising one of their biggest annoyances online. Our 'Generating Success with Generation C' report examines the growing digital marketing expectations of over 1000 office workers throughout the UK .

Due to the popularity of our previous blog 'Get the most out of Oracle APEX logs' published in January 2018 we decided to continue the Oracle APEX series. Rene Mikami is back with more amazing Oracle APEX  suggestions and tips! 

In the second of our series on the public sector, digital transformation and Smart Lives, we are looking at cloud computing. At a time when government organisations struggle for funding, digitalisation offers a way of delivering services to users in a more cost-effective manner. Cloud is the foundation of that transformation. As a concept it has been talked about for over a decade yet adopting it can be a challenge for cash-strapped public services. What stops the sector from accelerating cloud use to unlock its benefits?

Oracle Application Express (Oracle APEX) is the web application development tool for the Oracle database. We use the tool to design, develop and deploy database-driven applications, either on-premise or in the cloud. Using only a web browser and with limited programming experience, you can rapidly develop and deploy professional applications that are both fast and secure for any device from desktop to mobile.

Public services, like many sectors, are wrestling with how it can make the most of the opportunities on offer through digital transformation. Over the course of the coming weeks, we’ll look at some of the most common challenges faced by the public sector. Our blogs will cover why government has been slow to adopt digital transformation and move to the Cloud, how Edge computing and the Internet of Things can be integrated into everyday life, and what 'Smart Lives' really means. Today, we are considering identity verification, and whether it is the future of the public sector’s digital transformation.

Who are you? Can you prove it?

Keeping the ball rolling on I>M Wellness over the festive season... 

The run up to Christmas is arguably the best time to come together to celebrate our shared experiences with Wellness this year. 

December. The time of year when people stop consuming the budget and start consuming traditional Christmas cakes. However, December is also the time of year to look back and reflect on the previous 11 months.

On October 10th, we celebrate World Mental Health Day. At Infomentum we've recently made a pledge to change how we think and act about mental health, and we've decided to dive right in and really get involved. Let's begin with some background about mental health at work. We'll discuss a topic that a lot of people might not know much about, and focus on our initiatives to get us all talking about, understanding, and looking at mental health in a different way. 

Part 2: Implementation

In Part 1, we talked about picking the tools for our first foray into the world of headless Content Management System (CMS) architectures, during our project with Fudgelearn. We had other options on our radar, but we decided that WordPress was the CMS that fit in best with our requirements. These were the main ones:

Web development is accelerating at an incredible rate - new frameworks seem to pop up every day. Whilst this is exciting (at least to a front-end geek like me!), it can be difficult knowing which new tools are any good and which ones you should be using.

A few weeks back, I decided to get involved in Java Challenge UK, by sitting on the competition’s jury panel. A bit of context: the Java Challenge is a gamified competition, with one league for professionals and one for students, that consists of multiple-choice questions. As part of the “jury duty”, I had the task of writing one of these questions. I decided to write my question around lambdas; read on to find out a little bit about why...

In my last article, The evolution of test documentation; lessons learned from implementing Cucumber, I explained two things. Firstly, how we at Infomentum have adopted Behaviour-Driven Development to define test scenarios, and secondly, how we use Cucumber JVM as an implementation platform for running these scenarios as automated tests.

Generation C is not a group defined by their age; they are defined by their attitudes, behaviour, shared interests and constantly connected digital lifestyle.

In the second installment of our 'A Day in the Life of...' blog series, we catch up with David Weston, Head of QA at Infomentum, to find out what his typical day looks like. 

A wise man once said "If you are going to dive head-first into DevOps, better pack a parachute". Aside from the fact that this man was me, the point is still valid. 

Infomentum had started maturing into a DevOps culture, which involved the developers using tools normally associated with DevOps to solve development problems. We were calling it DevOps for several years, even though the actual DevOps culture, practices and support were not in place. The changes made were effective at enhancing the development lifecycle, but were completely separate and sliced off from the rest of the organisation. This meant that infrastructure needed to catch up so that the DevOps practices could be fully utilised throughout the company. The major issue with DevOps is that it really is all or nothing; as soon as you have segregated processes and half-utilised technologies, the power of DevOps is completely negated.

I was recently invited along to the WPEngine summit, thanks to Infomentum having worked on a customer’s news and views blog using WPEngine and Wordpress.

First of all, I have to say that the entire conference was great. The speakers were well thought-out, and the topics felt fresh - as well as a great goodie bag at the end! But the talk that really captured my attention was by Monica Cravotta. She talked us through WPEngine's latest research: “The future of digital experiences by generation.” 

Recently, we organised our first ever Infomentum quiz night. We’ve got a sociable office made up of 16 nationalities and lively personalities, and we try to have regular events to get different teams working together. Nothing says inter-departmental collaboration like a competitive quiz!

If you read my last blog post on May's MuleSoft Summit, you'll remember that I told you I got a sneak peek at MuleSoft's roadmap.

Well, that functionality has now been released.

On July 29th, MuleSoft's Crowd release went live. It seemed like a long wait, but it was finally time to put my hands on the new Anypoint Exchange 2.0 and the completely new component, Design Center. Now that I've had a few days to take a look around at all of the new functionality, I'm rounding up my highlights below. 

We are celebrating a decade in business!

Infomentum has celebrated its 10th anniversary. Starting life as technology implementation experts in Oracle WebCenter portfolio, the business has experienced rapid growth over the years which has seen its capabilities expand.

Now in its tenth year, we offer our customers a wide range of services; from digital acceleration consulting, to technology implementation in the areas of content and process, data and analytics and customer experience, to full managed services and hosting. The business now offers expertise in best-of-breed technologies from Oracle, Mulesoft, Amazon, Adobe and more.

Kicking off our new blog series, ‘A Day in the Life of…’ our summer interns, computer science students Pratik Jadhav and Hasan Rafiq, reveal a behind-the-scenes glimpse of an intern’s typical day.

I chose to study computer science because…

Pratik: My dad is in the IT business so it’s something I’ve been interested in from a young age. I love technology and I wanted to understand how everything works, and how to develop everything.

Hasan: Other members of my family are in IT so I always knew about it. At first, I was going to go into dentistry, but I tried it out and I couldn’t see myself looking into other people’s mouths for the rest of my life! So I knew then that I wanted to go into computer science.

The old way

I'm going to let you in on a secret. I learnt my trade in a traditional software testing consultancy - I'm talking a waterfall approach to test planning, test case definition and test scripting. Over the last 5 years at Infomentum, I've evolved and have worked hard to optimise Infomentum's testing practices to suit our agile development environment. 

Recently, I was one of the lucky few that were handpicked to attend Oracle's partner training on Intelligent Bot in London - and that meant I got hands-on experience with the product and witnessed its glory in action! The product is called Intelligent Bot and it would be available as part of the Mobile Cloud Service (MCS) suite as it complements other features of that product - not to mention that it fits the product the most. The aim is to provide an easy way to create Chatbot applications in simple steps, and provide options for Intent Recognition - i.e. understanding what the Chatbot's end user means - and custom entities to be able to take actions and drive the conversation towards whatever developers see fit.

Wait: you need to read part 1 and part 2 first!

The fun side of cultural change

You’ll remember that last week I discussed the crucial need for a cultural change in how we dealt with time logging. After the CX team’s thorough research, we were ready to take the findings – and our ideas – to our board of directors. 

Hint: you'll need to read part 1 first for this post to make sense.

Phase 2: Imagine

The CX team got together to discuss the problems and carry out an internal ideation workshop to tackle them. We knew that we had 3 key tasks:

• Improve people’s knowledge of why time logging is important
• Create a culture of time logging as a habit; and
• Make the systems they needed to use simpler and clearer while having less of them!

It had been coming for a long time…

At the end of every month, developers scrambled to complete their timesheets, while the operations team were breathing down their necks, threatening them with sticks to get it done - and done right. The developers were left wondering why operations wanted their time logs so desperately. Surely they already knew what they had been working on? The operations team were scratching their heads as to why the developers didn’t do it; they had been reminded at the end of every month like clockwork, yet every month the same story. It was hugely frustrating for both sides, and was approaching boiling point. As soon as the Customer Experience team had a break between projects, we knew this was a top internal issue that had to be solved.

I’ve wanted to write something about Infomentum's scrum board since its inception in late 2012. Now seemed as good a time as any to share the story...

During an end of sprint retrospective, one of our developers Jakub said “I'm bored of the board.” That didn’t surprise me.

In the 'What are microservices (part 3)' we touched different approaches to building a microservices architecture. In this final post of series on microservices, I will discuss those approaches in more details. 

Wait! Have you read 'What are microservices' blog posts part 1 and part 2? You need to cover those out before reading on.

When it comes to microservices, the million dollar question is: “How do I decompose my monolith into microservices?”. Well, as you can imagine this can be done in many ways, and here I will be suggesting some guidelines.

I'm an Integration Consultant and part of Infomentum's wider integration team. As well as being a MuleSoft trainer, I'm a certified MuleSoft developer and an Oracle SOA suite specialist.

I’m going to pick up from last week’s post when we discussed the microservices definition, and looked at the alternative approach to microservices, aka the monolith. Make sure you read that before carrying on with this post.

Why is the microservices approach different? Let’s explore the main features one by one.

The discussion on microservices has exploded recently. It’s been heralded as the future. But is it really so new, or something more familiar than we think?

Well, let’s start by setting the scene; what are microservices?

Oracle Code Conferences started in March this year, in the red city itself - San Francisco. The event is doing the rounds worldwide, and I attended my local one in London last week with my Infomentum Colleagues. My initial thought was that it was really interesting to see how Oracle is attracting a different audience this time around; more technical oriented attendees, with a bigger spectrum of technical skills.

Infomentum are announcing a new partnership to help their customers to reach their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives.

The digital transformation consultancy are proud to collaborate with Transcendent Media Capital, a global company, which specialises in the development of International Social Ventures (ISVs) between corporations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to tackle global issues.

In the words of Annie Dillard, “If we are blinded by darkness, we are also blinded by light”. Paradoxically, being in the light and having too many ideas can be as fruitless as being in the dark and having none. These were the opening words of Professor Verganti’s talk at Oracle’s Modern Business Experience London conference, which caught my attention. Two minutes in, I had my notepad out. For a long time, I had been a believer of ‘the more, the merrier’ when it comes to ideas, and had somehow paid no attention to how that compromises quality and value.

London, 30 March 2017

Oracle has awarded Infomentum the Platform as a Service Partner of the Year award at the 2017 UK & Ireland Partner of the Year Awards.

An Oracle Platinum Partner, Infomentum was presented with the awards at Wednesday’s prestigious ceremony at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane Hotel London. The award recognised Infomentum’s excellence in delivering transformational projects which implemented Platform as a Service products, allowing their customers to improve both the employee and the customer experience.

Monday 20 March 2017

We are very excited to share the news that it is once again nominated for a coveted Oracle Specialized Partner award.

The Platinum Partner is up for the PaaS Partner of the Year award. Oracle chose to nominate Infomentum for their successes in delivering integrated PaaS products, helping customers to digitally transform their businesses.

Infomentum is proud to announce it has achieved the internationally recognised certification of ISO 27001, establishing it as one of the leaders in its field.

We decided to seek the ISO 27001 certification to validate our high standards of best practice in protecting assets. The independent assessment was conducted by the British Assessment Bureau, a leading certification body, and demonstrated our commitment to keeping data, staff and premises secure.

London, 8 September 2016

London, 16 August 2016

Infomentum has been announced as a finalist in the UK Digital Entrepreneur awards. The digital transformation and technology consultancy will stand in the Digital Business of the Year (SMB) category for delivering successful customer projects such as the Prince’s Trust.

Now in their 12th year, the awards are the longest-standing national tech awards in the UK, and showcase the very best of British digital entrepreneurship.

Workplaces are changing rapidly – often without us even noticing. And now that the first wave of digital disruption has already passed, employees are demanding more sophisticated experiences from the companies they work for. This means that, as businesses, we have a choice: change, or get left behind. One way of ensuring that we move with the times is to listen to the changing expectations of employees as we move towards the next big milestone: 2020.

77% of users claim they leave a site immediately if they experience any difficulty. It’s a shocking stat. One that perfectly illustrates the need for business to continually improve and innovate to keep up with progressive consumer demands.

Digital transformation; it’s been the business buzzword of choice for the last 2 years or so. It’s proven to be one buzzword which has some meat behind it. Digital transformation is still a hot topic and has manifested in tangible success for many businesses and even charities like The Prince’s Trust.

“Beyond Digital” report highlights how new technology will impact the workplace over the next five years

91% of UK employees believe that their businesses will no longer be competitive by 2020 as a result of new technology. That’s according to a new “Beyond Digital” report, launched today by digital transformation consultancy Infomentum.

The report, which collated feedback from over 1000 UK office workers, examines how new technology trends are set to disrupt UK businesses and employment over the next five years.

No industry has seen the effects of digital disruption hit hard quite as publicly as the retail sector.

Shock headlines detail the decline of footfall, with indignant images of boarded up stores and empty high streets. Pre-Christmas forecasts preached that the most successful holiday retailers would be those offering the optimum online shopping experience.

But aside from the scare-mongering surrounding physical stores, the key focus for retailers has remained steadfastly the same; how to offer the best customer experience? There are key challenges the industry can address today to keep up with changing consumer demand.

We are delighted to be nominated in two key categories at Oracle’s 2016 UKI Specialized Partner Awards.

The Platinum Partner’s efforts see them shortlisted in the Transformational Win and Integrated Cloud categories. This recognises the success of The Prince’s Trust’s Digital Transformation project and innovation with BAE Systems, which sees a complex integration of Oracle’s Cloud products.

Author: Natalia Bazanova

Whether you have physical shops or not, your website is considered another shopfront, and customers will treat it that way. If you can't find something in a shop, you ask a sales assistant. But what about if you can’t find something on a businesses website? There's often no online shop assistant to ask for help. That's where your customers will turn to a powerful search function to find out what they need from you.

Every new application created with the Oracle WebCenter Portal framework and ADF comes with default styling that you extend from an out-of-the-box skin, like Skyros. But if every time we created an application with the default style, it would be a very boring and monotonous digital world. That’s where skinning comes in to brand your application to your company guidelines!

I have a Google habit. It’s the curse (or blessing!) of growing up in the ‘digital age’ (but please, don’t call me a millennial). That’s to say that I rely on my smartphone to Google anything and everything. Admit it, you’re guilty too.

Scientists believe that this habit of ‘googling’ everything is actually making our attention spans shorter. It’s a common practise in this ‘digital’ era; throw technology at a problem and it will solve it. That works, right? When it comes to your business, the ‘Google’ effect is not the answer.

Infomentum, the digital transformation consultancy helping clients to bridge the gap between business and technology, has been awarded supplier status on the UK Government Digital Marketplace. This will enable the business to continue to offer top-class consultancy services and technology implementation and support to the UK’s public sector.

How many blogs have you read that start with ‘the world is changing’? Guess what, the world has changed. Scientists in the States believe that we are currently going through a technology revolution that will have the same impact on our planet as the industrial revolution. And they think robots will become commonplace sooner than you think!

Boosting their offering to the retail sector, Infomentum has joined Sopra Steria’s Retail Alliance. The Retail Alliance is all about customers: your customers. Helping you understand them better. Giving you the tools to provide them with a consistent experience across channels that exceeds their expectations, drives sales and increases wallet share and loyalty.

Picking up important industry information is key for attendees at this year’s UKOUG Apps and Tech Conferences. Event go’ers expect learn from other’s experiences in developing Oracle software.

Infomentum will be sharing knowledge across two separate sessions at the conferences this December. One session sees Infomentum share best practice on branding ADF applications. The second session focuses on the hot topic of integrating systems with the cloud via Oracle SOA.

Every organisation contains mass volumes of data; but how do you embrace the data to attain the most business value from it?

On Tuesday 17 November, Oracle are hosting a one day forum advising businesses on how to put data at the centre of their innovation. Attendees at Oracle’s Data Integration Customer Forum will include C-level executives in the IT, Marketing and Digital fields.

Youth charity The Prince’s Trust has embarked on a digital transformation to enable them to better serve the thousands of young people who come to the charity every year.

Hot on the heels of their latest award from the UK Oracle User Group, Infomentum is announced as a contender for Best Test Automation Project at the European Software Testing Awards.

Infomentum was selected for the shortlist after sharing an innovative automotive customer story. The project demanded complex, bespoke simulation of an end-to-end car diagnostics scan, offering significant challenges for the test team to overcome. The achievements made by the team were recognised by the awards judges.

For the second consecutive year, Oracle Fusion Middleware users have voted Infomentum as Silver Middleware Partner of the Year at the UKOUG Awards 2015.

Infomentum celebrated in style at the glamorous ceremony, held at The Waldorf Hilton Hotel, London on 15 October alongside friends and colleagues from Oracle.

Embracing digital technology across all customer touch-points is now a key focus area for marketing leaders. It has become more crucial than ever to leverage digital for competitive advantage and to improve the employee and customer experience.

That’s why, from 29 September – 1 October, digital and marketing leaders from across Europe will gather to attend the CMO Digital Leaders Summit at Hilton The Hauge, Netherlands. Infomentum will be attending the event to share knowledge and insight into how modern marketers can face digital disruption head on.

Infomentum has recorded a 70% increase in revenues compared to the previous year. The company has been growing steadily in recent years with the increase in demand for digital transformational solutions. The last 12 months has seen a significant increase as organisations start to turn their digital visions into reality. 

We’ve been keeping a secret. Just by landing on our website you have likely noticed that we’re looking pretty different. We’re delighted to introduce the new Infomentum brand.

We’re proud of our roots. We’re proud of what our team achieves day in, day out. That’s why our new brand better reflects our clients, our capability and our people.

For the second year running, Infomentum has been been nominated for UK Oracle User Group’s Middleware Partner of the Year award.

Infomentum was shortlisted after a panel of adjudicators judged all entries in the Middleware category. Voting is now open, and each partner will vie for the gold, silver or bronze level of the award.

The Infomentum team is preparing its sea legs to join Oracle on their annual sailing regatta on 25 June.

Sponsoring a boat is part of Infomentum’s ongoing commitment to its relationship with Oracle. The event is an opportunity to network with other Oracle partners, as well as valuable time to meet and greet different Oracle teams and customers.

The day on the water includes three races. Each boat boasts its own experienced skipper, joined by 7 teammates. The team are hoping for good summertime weather as one boat will be sailing under the Infomentum flag.  The evening features a hog roast and prize-giving for the lucky teams that win the daytime races.

The Prince’s Trust is transforming its business, with the help of Infomentum. So it’s no surprise that being totally bought into the charity, Infomentum is proud to support a summer ball in aid of the The Prince’s Trust on June 4.

Vikram Setia, Partner & Chief Commercial Officer at Infomentum said: “The Prince’s Trust is such an important charity providing vital assistance to young people in need. The Trust literally helps to change people’s lives and it’s a cause we feel very passionately about at Infomentum. It’s always a rewarding opportunity for us to be able to support this summer ball and give back to those charities that we work with.”

The marketer does. No, the IT department owns it. Wait, it belongs to everyone.

Who owns digital in your business? Before you answer that, maybe we should understand what we mean by ‘digital’?

Digital marketing is now a common marketing discipline. It combines social media, email, websites and portals. Originally used to listen and broadcast, digital channels are now used to support customer service, with social media and web chat being the fastest growing customer contact channel in the UK.

Oracle recognized Infomentum, a digital experience consultancy and solution provider, with its 2015 Oracle Excellence Award for Specialized Partner of the Year – UK in Middleware. Infomentum is a Platinum level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).

The Oracle Excellence Awards for Specialized Partner of the Year - UK encourage innovation by OPN members, who use Oracle's products and technology to create value for customers. The award reflects Infomentum’s success in adopting OPN’s Specialized approach which is aimed at enabling partners to establish industry recognition by following a formal process to become Specialized in key Oracle solution areas.

Gone are the days of focusing on saving money. Business leaders are now looking at either how to simply keep up with their customers, or how they can profit from digital.

The result requires business transformation. Or is it digital transformation? What is the difference?

To be honest, there should be no difference. Or there certainly won't be as time goes by. Becoming a digital business could be compared to the days of computerising your business back in the 1980s. The installation of a computer to enable you to do your job quicker is no different to implementing a digital strategy in order to operate more efficiently and deliver a more acceptable customer experience.

Until now, your business will have invested in technology solutions to streamline processes and save money. Some of this investment may also have been in improving the customer experience.  From ERP to document management, marketing automation to clients and internal portals, so many aspects of a business are now automated.

How joined up are these technologies? Are they meeting the modern users' expectations? Are they in line with your digital strategy?

Despite widespread commitment to digital technologies and trends, UK businesses are still falling behind as a result of inflexible corporate cultures. That’s according to a new report from digital experience consultancy Infomentum, which compiled the thoughts of key players including Oracle, BAE Systems, The Ministry of Justice and others.

London, 20 February 2015

London, February 9 2015

London, 27 January 2015

London, 6 November 2014

Technology has already become a permanent fixture in everyday life, so the need for businesses to have a digital strategy in place is becoming increasingly obligatory. This poses a challenge for businesses, which not only need to update their legacy technologies to keep up but also their business methodologies.

London, 24 October 2014