IDIOM:Transforming business with Ultra Agile, Decision Centric Approaches
Mark Norton, CEO With theincreasing complexity of modernsoftware applications, new approachesare needed to contain development risk, cost, and time to deliver.
Agileis a common-sense approach to development that, when applied correctly, can help reduce development risk, cost, and time by substantial amounts.
But agile approaches to development are not enough on their own. Agility should be measured by business metrics, not IT metrics. A true measure of agility is how quickly and easily the business can respond to changing market conditions, for instance with new productsand new processes. Business agility needs more than just agile development. It needs software platforms that are designed to be agile; and new design patterns that deliver business agility. IDIOM calls these the ‘three dimensions of agile’: Agile development approaches (1); agile enabled platforms (2); and agile business systems (3).
In 2001NZI Insurance,then New Zealand’s largest insurer, approached IDIOM founder Mark Nortonto develop his unique rules engineconcept for use in insurance. He established IDIOM Limited, and that same year the first IDIOM decision engine was in production–the journey towards the ‘three dimensions of agile’ had begun.
IDIOM was founded on the concept that all business content in an applicationcan be separately defined and deployed inside an application ‘container’, where it iscontinuously developed, tested, and deployed by business subject matter expertsusing declarative tools.
“Our focus ison providing robustly engineered and highly agile platforms that enhance business agility” explains Mark. IDIOM helps both theIT and the business user communities toachieve these goals, providingtools, approaches, and design patterns that are unashamedly agile. IDIOM’s most recent offering is the IDIOM Transaction Engine, which is a set of software libraries that capture IDIOM’s industrial strength tools and best practice development patterns in asecure, high performance, cloud-based platform.The IDIOM Transaction Engine is like the submerged part of an iceberg–the hidden but larger part that supports the visible business application above.The business application itself can be completed quickly and easily by using the IDIOM tools to achieve outstanding business agility withminimal risk,cost,and time to deliver.
“We try very hard to empower both the business and IT stake holders so that we can exit any engagement as soon as possible.Our role is to be a business transformer, not an ongoing service provider”adds Mark.
In any engagement, IDIOM begins by analysing the business policies and operational decision-making that defines how that business operates. This leads quickly to building out the business application, whichoccursalongside any requiredtechnical integration,so that large and complex applications (like full insurance systems)can be reliably delivered in 3-6 months.These applications once took years to build, and are invariably rigid and inflexible, whereas the rapidly fabricated IDIOM applications are inherently agile–or as one business owner describes them,‘nimble,continuous,and perpetual’.
“IDIOM’s technology is built usinga mix of deep experience and common sense blended together with industrial strength development capability” says Mark. This mix has proven itself with blue chip customers around the world, including insurers, hospitals, airlines, banks, pension funds, telecoms, and municipal, state, and central government agencies. The IDIOM approach is helping business owners across all these domains to tame the ‘beast of complexity’– perhaps it could help your business too?
“We try very hard to empower both the business and IT stake holders so that we can exit any engagement as soon as possible.Our role is to be a business transformer, not an ongoing service provider”adds Mark.
IDIOM’s core competency arises from the practical application of common sense to complex problems
In any engagement, IDIOM begins by analysing the business policies and operational decision-making that defines how that business operates. This leads quickly to building out the business application, whichoccursalongside any requiredtechnical integration,so that large and complex applications (like full insurance systems)can be reliably delivered in 3-6 months.These applications once took years to build, and are invariably rigid and inflexible, whereas the rapidly fabricated IDIOM applications are inherently agile–or as one business owner describes them,‘nimble,continuous,and perpetual’.
“IDIOM’s technology is built usinga mix of deep experience and common sense blended together with industrial strength development capability” says Mark. This mix has proven itself with blue chip customers around the world, including insurers, hospitals, airlines, banks, pension funds, telecoms, and municipal, state, and central government agencies. The IDIOM approach is helping business owners across all these domains to tame the ‘beast of complexity’– perhaps it could help your business too?
CIO Speaks
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Mike Anderson, CIO, CROSSMARK
Thomas Knapp, CIO, Waterstone Mortgage Corporation
Joelle Chen, Director, Global Partnerships & Marketing, Intelligent Air Solutions, Mann+Hummel
Peter Auhl
Subbu Murthy, CIO, Howard Building Corporation
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Osman Faiz, Chief Information Officer, Singapore, Standard Chartered Bank
Stephen Barnham, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, Metlife Asia
Tom Knutilla, VP & Division CIO, Ryder Dedicated Transportation Solutions & Supply Chain SolutionsGary Allen, VP-Supply Chain Excellence, Ryder Supply Chain Solutions
Neil Hampshire, CIO, Moduslink Global Solutions, Inc.
John Sadowski, EVP & CIO, Sandy Spring Bank
Vic Peterson, CIO, Stinson Leonard Street LLP
