Titansoft: Fueling agility with a progressive workforce

Tomas Li, GM

Forget clunky single-game handheld consoles with blurry black-and-white displays. The modern-day entertainment industry has evolved to become one of the most dynamic sectors, with a constant requirement to produce impactful and user-centric products. Given a palpable need to stay on par with the rapidly changing landscape, with market readiness and a thorough understanding of users’ needs and wants at the very forefront, Agile serves as an instrumental tool that is capable of rendering transformative and unprecedented business outcomes. Not just confined to a methodology that needs to be incorporated into a business model, its significance traverses beyond to the collective mindset of the organization that has adopted the agile way of working.

Throw all fancy “technologies,” “processes,” and “models” related terminology out the window. The only and most important business model is the same one today as it has been since the first caveman started selling spiked clubs to “better hit you with” – the user-centric business model. Inspection and adaptation are the two main fuels driving progress forward in user-centric design and what is any establishment, without the hardworking engine toiling in the background to ensure users’ and everyone else’s happiness?

"We Strive To Keep The Gap Between The Business And Our Developers As Small As Possible, By Having No Segregation When Generating Solutions To Problems"

With the bulk of companies in the entertainment industry relying on increasingly complex technologies and the latest shiny new developments to excel in their field, investments in human resource developments tend to fall by the wayside. Not so for Titansoft, a Singapore-based, multi-national entertainment and software development firm with a solid ideology placing emphasis on maintaining an innovative mindset and cultivating a passionate workforce. Specializing in the areas of Agile software development and testing, system management, UX research and design, Titansoft’s unique appeal to job seekers that sets it apart from countless software development firms in the industry simply boils down to an eminent corporate culture, robust talent development framework, and innovation excellence. For a company with a motto of “Never Stop Improving” and vision to be a “Producer of Fun,” it is unsurprising that the company mission is all about “becoming the game-changer in the interactive entertainment space by challenging the conventional,” explains Tomas Li, General Manager of Titansoft.

Starting out in 2005 as developers of custom-made and innovative software solutions with a team of five, Titansoft grew on to become a close-knitted community, bringing together like-minded people with a shared interest in the value of constant progress. Today, the company stands 220 people strong within its flat organization, with more than 200 live projects in operation and over 5,000,000 active users from 150+ countries.

Focused on amplifying innovation and value through technology, Titansoft stays relevant in the industry by actively participating and sharing their experiences in trainings, meetups, and conferences. The company’s continued presence in Agile, UXSG and Data Science conferences allows them to gain valuable insights for developing impactful products that are user-focused and experience-driven.

Our Company’s Motto Is To ‘Never Stop Improving’ And That, Coupled With Our Vision To Be A Producer Of Fun, Defines Our Mission – To Be The Game-Changer In The Interactive Entertainment Industry By Challenging The Conventional

Being a progressive and employee-centric organization, Titansoft’s approach revolves around the six core agile principles of being value driven, promoting continuous learning, encouraging emergent leadership, practicing an adaptive culture, being practical and transparent. The company focuses on being value-driven and works hard to boost the impact of their services and afford better benefits to their shareholders, customers, and employees. The company also strives to foster a continuous learning environment within the organization, preventing its employees from settling for the status quo and allowing them to focus on improving, innovating, and moving consistently forward with their ideas and work. With a strong culture of ownership, emergent leadership is a highly prized quality within employees. As Li states, “The quality of emergent leadership stands relevant for all our employees. If you see a need, you do the deed—it’s that simple.”

Practicality in its approach means that Titansoft relies significantly on facts and outcomes to guide action plans in order to deliver quality results. Leveraging the power of an Agile mindset, the company practices the rules of preparedness for any change that comes their way. “Change is the only constant and being adaptive is something ingrained in the company culture,” adds Li. The adoption of the Agile framework is congruent with Titansoft’s founding principles, where flexible working initiatives encourage self-management and personal accountability within its staff. On top of all that, transparency is held high in significance and ongoing efforts work toward an environment that facilitates honest, open, and candid information flow.

As a sterling example of “walking the walk,” Titansoft’s somewhat unconventional human resource policies are structured with the company values in mind. Career progression for software developers is done through self-promotion, conveniently equipping employees with a clear understanding of organizational perks and job expectations. Software developers at Titansoft are not merely coders segregated by function. Rather, they are deployed as product developers capable of handling all aspects of the product within their self–managed teams. Li elaborates, “We strive to keep the gap between the business and our developers as small as possible, by having no segregation when generating solutions for problems. By knowing the context better, the developers are able to design more suitable solutions.”

Elimination of silos within the organization Titansoft is done through cross-functional teams which include not only product developers but also UX professionals brought together under the same project.

Each team has its own working agreement, and is outcome-driven and eager for continuous improvement. The open and safe work environment created with the implementation of agile work practices allows Titansoft to benefit with greater efficiency, collaboration, and productivity from an individual to a company-wide level.

Multiple accolades and awards received over the years recognizes the company’s ongoing efforts at integrating their core values into actual work processes, and serves as a validation of its commitment to both clients and employees. Winning the Best Tech Companies to Work For Award in 2017 was further proof of the company’s vibrant work-culture and the innovative people-first expertise it has to offer the industry and to its employees.

Entrusted with the responsibility of providing a healthy and safe work environment for employees, Titansoft has adopted actionable measures to ensure the overall health and well-being of its employees, complemented with a great work-life integration to win the company the Gold Singapore Health Award in 2016, a biennial award which identifies companies with outstanding workplace health promotion practices. In the same year, the company also received the Singapore Quality Class (SQC) and People Developer Standard certifications conferred by SPRING Singapore. The SQC certification distinguishes organizations with robust business fundamentals and overall business excellence, while the People Developer Standard is a three-year scheme that acknowledges organizations with a quality standard on human resource development of their people based on the areas of leadership, planning, information, people, and results.

On the academic front, Titansoft has formed strategic partnerships with educational institutions in Singapore which serve as part of a multi-dimensional strategy involving internship programs and delivering talks on the Agile framework, its application and impact on both the work environment and software development. The company’s long-term endeavor to impart an agile organizational culture as an open and safe work environment goes hand in hand with their efforts of augmenting the IT talent pool in Singapore. Recently, Titansoft received an invitation from the Tech in Asia Conference 2018 to do a sharing on ‘How we overcame our Legacy Codebase.’ Ample experience in knowledge sharing ensures that Titansoft is a recognized contributor within the technology communities in both Singapore and Taiwan.

Within a span of 13 years, Titansoft has established its prominence in the Singapore corporate landscape while competing with some of the most renowned names in the IT industry. Catering to rapid organizational growth, the company has created a robust future roadmap and recently relocated to a new office, with additional amenities and space for all its employees.

“We are breaking new grounds with an unconventional business approach, en route to becoming a globally recognized entertainment brand that provides the most enjoyable gaming experience to users,” concludes Li.

- Ashwani Kumar
August 20, 2018