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January 18, 2018September 30, 2021

See how Artificial Intelligence is changing the way we live our lives

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will become mainstream in 2018, considers Ralph Haupter, the president of Microsoft Asia, and we have lots of arguments to believe the same way. AI is a strategic area of investment for every enterprise and it`s considered to be the only way to remain one step ahead of competitors. A survey conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Teradata on 260 IT and business decision-makers VP-level or higher, from organizations with a global revenue of more than $50M a year, shows that an extraordinary 80% of enterprises are investing in AI.

Industries impacted by AI

Though almost all industries are affected and invest in AI, there are a couple of areas that will be revolutionized by it. The same survey highlights the fact that 59% of companies from IT and telecommunications expect to benefit from AI, followed by 43% business and professional services and 32% of customer services and financial services.

AI will revolutionize medicine

Julie Choi, head of marketing in the Artificial Intelligence Products Group at Intel, considers that in 2018 AI will expand to medical diagnostics and will adapt to companies need to bring solutions to market.

Mark Michalski, executive director, “Massachusetts General Hospital” and “Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center” for Clinical Data Science, cited by blogs.nvidia.com, says 2018 will be the year AI becomes real for medicine: “By the end of next year, I think around half of leading healthcare systems will have adopted some form of AI within their diagnostic groups. In 2018, we’ll begin the adoption of a technology that may truly transform the way providers work, and the way patients experience healthcare, on a global scale”.

AI in everyday life

Research scientists expect that this year everybody will have a virtual assistant and that AI will help them getting smarter. The most widely used assistants are Siri, from Apple, Google Assistant, Alexa, from Amazon and Cortana from Microsoft. 2018 should be the year in which our voice-based gadgets will work together, we`ll have personalized media – from reports to music playlists, according to our taste and interests. Experts believe that soon people will ask themselves how were we able to live without AI, which will allow us to accelerate the development of new innovative products in all areas.

AI will create new jobs

Although AI will bring lots of advantage, people continue to wonder if their jobs are safe or if they risk losing them because of robots. According to a Gartner report from December 2017, AI will replace only low-level, routine work. Moreover, AI is expected to create 2.3 million new jobs by 2020, while eliminating only 1.8 million jobs.

January 11, 2018September 30, 2021

2018 is the year of the Hybrid Cloud

Cloud computing has come into existence in 2000. Since then it enables organizations to access rapidly and effortlessly shared resources. Cloud computing relies on adjusting resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demands in order to achieve coherence and economy of scale.

While private clouds operate for a single organization, the public ones rent their services for public use. Since both of them have strengths and weaknesses, organizations found competitive advantages in the hybrid cloud because it delivers the expected experience. The composition between two or more private and public clouds crosses isolation and allows integration.

Although it took a while to convince clients of its security and trustworthiness, nowadays more and more companies implement a hybrid cloud strategy. A setup where existing systems on a traditional IT infrastructure are combined with a public cloud service is currently the most frequent use case of a hybrid cloud. This way, companies manage to put selected workloads in the public cloud and keep others in-house.

Who’s affected by hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud systems can be very effectively utilized for industries with variable workloads. This already affects any industry that needs a minimum security against data loss.

Building a hybrid cloud for your organization requires planning and forethought. The best way to achieving the optimal solution is to work closely with the vendors. The largest players in the cloud market are becoming more responsive to the complexities of managing the hybrid cloud. They are offering more solutions and tools to assist in the transition.

A true hybrid cloud should enable you to move workloads back and forth with relative ease. Also, it should allow connecting resources you want to remain on premise with the ones that it makes more sense to transfer to a cloud. When choosing your cloud solution you need to take into consideration data security, safety, and efficiency.

2018, the year of the hybrid cloud

Enterprises are increasingly adopting the cloud for data management and the hybrid cloud is heading the same way. A SUSE study, conducted on more than 1,400 senior IT decision-makers in 20 countries across a wide variety of industries, shows that hybrid cloud strategies are growing faster than private or public cloud. 66% of respondents expect hybrid cloud growth to continue, compared to 55% for private cloud and 36% for public cloud.

Moreover, from May 2018, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will serve as a catalyst for enterprises investing in data governance and change the face of data protection as we know it. As public clouds will be riskier options under GDPR, it`s predictable that the interest in the hybrid cloud will increase.

January 5, 2018September 29, 2021

6 steps to getting the job that doesn’t just pay the bills

If 2017 wasn’t the most fulfilling year of your career, we have some tips that might actually help you enjoy going to work this year. So, if you’re looking for a new challenge, let us help you to transform 2018 into the best year so far. You just need to keep in mind a couple of things.

Apply for Positions Even if you don’t have every single requirement

First of all, decide what type of job you aspire to and don’t apply for positions that you are definitely not qualified for. We encourage you to apply for jobs even if you’re missing a few of the requirements, but in areas of your expertise. Take into consideration that it’s important to demonstrate interest and initiative in learning the missing skills. Also, make sure the position itself and the company culture match your personality and needs.

Take LinkedIn seriously

Next step – take your LinkedIn profile seriously. Social media has become the main resource for screening candidates. So if you don’t have a clean, complete profile, you are missing a powerful resource. To obtain maximum visibility on LinkedIn you should have a complete profile. Don’t be shy and please, for your personal benefit, write about your accomplishments. Any job-related recognition should be included in your profile. Do yourself a big favor and join groups that boost your ranking and bring some consistency to your personal brand. Before going further, one last thing you should keep in mind about LinkedIn – users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive job offers.

Improve your networking skills

Another great way to discover new opportunities is to improve your networking skills. Besides the fact that it helps your chances of employment, it increases your contacts and can help you improve yourself and you could even discover new ideas and strengths. So, don’t hesitate to build up your network!

Unique ways to promote yourself

2018 continues to be all about visual media. We are still obsessed about it and if you can find a way to represent yourself and make a visual impression, it will be to your advantage. Keep in mind that the human mind thinks in images and make sure to use professional pictures for your social media profiles.

Create a personal brand for yourself

If you can find a creative way to show your abilities, you’ll also manage to create a personal brand for yourself and tell everyone what you’re all about. You should consider an out of the box resume, it will make you stand out from the others.

Also, your personal brand will benefit from your volunteering activity, which is a great way to fill a gap in your resume. Take certification courses as often as possible in order to keep learning. Go to as many training as possible and do everything you can to avoid staying stagnant in your career.

Don’t accept a job just to make a change

During your job search don’t lose track of your goals and aspirations. Make time for things which are important for you, seek for the position that lets you keep a balance between work and life. Not at last, ask yourself what you really want from a new position. Don’t accept a job just to make a change cause you might get stuck into an unfulfilling career.

Last but not least – don’t just wish for a better job, work for it! Make 2018 count and let it be a great year for your career!

November 14, 2017September 29, 2021

An approach to functional programming and trending programming paradigms debated at Codecamp Cluj-Napoca on 11 November

Over 2000 attendees

Last Saturday, AXON Soft participated as a partner of the 4th edition of Codecamp in Cluj-Napoca in order to strengthen our mutual commitment to the local community of IT professionals. The event was gladly received and attracted over 2000 attendees driven by their passion for IT.

The event included a full day of presentations provided by local and international speakers on topics of current interest in JAVA, .NET, PHP, Agile Development and so on. The great number of attendees and the willingness to find out more techniques surrounding certain IT topics came together to make a great Saturday for new and fresh ideas.

A topic of interest for JAVA professionals was discussed by our speaker, Martino BETTUCCI. He delivered a session about ‘Functional Programming and New Programming Paradigms’. Martino explained the differences between two mathematical concepts, the ‘Touring Machine’ and ‘Lambda Calculus’, and how these reflect into different mindsets – the Imperative and the Functional programming. In order to have a better understanding of the concepts, he used several practical examples in Java 9. At the end Martino offered a live running demo, using the same algorithm written in the two different programming styles, showing how each reflects into the written code and into the use of the hardware resources, giving also ideas on which one should be used depending on certain scenarios.

In conclusion, we are excited to say it was an intense session and we would like to thank all the participants for their interest. We really enjoyed seeing such a big IT community in our town! See you at the next Codecamp edition!

Here are some pictures of the atmosphere described:

[pdf-embedder url=”https://testare.axonsoft.ro/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Poze-AxonSoft-Codecamp.pdf” title=”Poze AxonSoft Codecamp”]

November 2, 2017September 29, 2021

One question interview: What are your challenges at work?

The Cluj Napoca IT community is a continuous growing environment which attracts new companies to invest and find bright talents. As we are a Romanian company and part of this environment where students and talented professionals grow, we care to share what it is that feeling of being in love with programming.

We have prepared a list of things that keep our fellows engaged and motivated, in order to see how the projects or the work atmosphere is folding over their needs.

Meet some Axon Soft team members in a small interview, regarding their challenges at work:

Ionel – Team Lead

I have worked on this project since from the beginning and over the years I have learned new things and I have constantly grown professionally. I started as a developer and now I’m a team leader. The process of being part of the project development kept me going through its lifecycle, from prototype to an application used across the globe.

Maria – Software Developer

Understanding how the clients want their specifications done and also how the final users of the application expect it to be is a matter of good communication. It is challenging to come across this needs, to resolve them and then to see a happy user.

Georgiana – Software Developer

I love coding and there’s a lot to learn and do in the project I’m working. That is what it keeps me challenged: the unknown situations and all the new things that I discovered in order to solve them.

Mihai – Software Developer

The project is definitely what keeps me challenged. As complex as the application is, I always learn and discover new things together with the team.

Alexandra – Software Developer

The company culture is diverse and the fact that we work as a remote team is pretty challenging for me. Learning how to better communicate and how to increase the quality of the work is important to me.

Alexandru – Software Developer

Having the opportunity to change my working environment and face the interaction with other technologies was a beneficial and provocative thing to do. I like how all the team members are hardworking and devoted to the project.

We are trying to find out what kind of challenges keep you focused and engaged at your workspace.

Leave a comment and share with us the secret formula that keeps you in a positive atmosphere at work!

You can also see and apply to our open positions here!

October 12, 2017September 29, 2021

5 time-management tips for software developers

Having enough time is a challenge for many IT professionals. It feels like it would be perfect to have extra time to get everything done, especially when there are so many details to be worked out at the eleventh hour. While there’s nothing to do with the number of hours in one day, working smarter seems to be a more efficient solution. So, here are 5 tips regarding time management and how to become more productive at work.

Analyze your time use

Have you ever wondered “On what am I spending too much time?” ? If you feel you are not really sure where the day is going or how this could be improved, a step by step ‘guide’ would be a perfect starting point. Keep tracking every activity and record them on a list or in a more visual way, according to your preferences. After collecting at least one or two weeks of data, analyze how many hours you have been spending on certain tasks and how could your time be optimized. This is the moment when you can notice your habits or some issues.

Minimize multitasking

It’s true that some days we are more productive than other days and we might feel like being up to do multitasking. But working on two or more projects or doing multiple things at the same time is not always efficient. When you are focused on accomplishing one task at once is more likely to be efficiently done. So try to keep multitasking at the minimum as possible.

Delegate when needed

When deadlines are coming and you have to deal with the challenge of completing tasks on time, don’t panic! There might be one of your teammates that could finish a certain task in a timely manner. Everyone on the team has a specific skills set and someone might has dealt with a previous similar task. Working together could make things run smoother, so don’t forget to help back using your defining skills.

Plan your day

When it comes to software development, planning is essential for the project success. Before writing every single line of code, it’s important to take time to think and plan your day. Of course, any interruptions could happen. For instance, any emergency task to complete or a meeting to attend could occur at any time. So, in order to avoid delaying the daily to-do list too much, it’s important to take such situations into account and allocate time for this as well.

Use your dead time

Going to work in a rush hour sounds like a waste of time. While standing in traffic, you can take advantage of dead time. If you are moving by public transportation, you can wisely use your gadgets to read technology news or do some research on how to fix some issues or how to complete the new tasks. But if you prefer moving by your own car, there are lots of audiobooks or tutorials that could be listened while driving.

Those being said, we are always eager to improve our productivity. Thereby, if you know other tips, please leave a comment below and share with us your own time management best practices.

September 7, 2017September 29, 2021

Why we love working on a team (and you should too)

Software applications do not just happen. They are developed in a systematical manner of dividing the process of development into specific phases through the collaboration of tech team members. As well as this, teams do not just happen. They are built over time and are the result of hard work and an inspiring leadership.

Of course, every team member has an individual set of skills, but working in teams is a significant part of our experience. So, here are some reasons why we love working together that we would like to share:

New things to learn

We always have something to learn from our colleagues. It might be how to use a new tool, to solve a certain problem, to visualize the activities in a series of steps or it could be a soft skill that we would like to develop. These points are a great way to become better professionals and human beings.

Sharing the same goal

A team doesn’t work efficiently if all the members don’t work to move in the same direction in order to achieve the same result. Having a clear plan and performance targets provides us a clear way to measure the success of our work and our organization.

Creating real impact

Working together, we get to experience a real connection to our mission and only together we can achieve a greater outcome than by our own. The satisfaction of our work comes from the fact that the final result has a great impact on other businesses’ improvement.

Having fun

Let’s face it. Work is a serious part of our lives. With all the time and energy we spend at the office, if we wouldn’t have a little fun from time to time, wouldn’t be that sad? Since we spend time together, we like to make more enjoyable the things we get done daily.

Therefore, in the spirit of teamwork, we asked some members of our teams to share their opinions. We asked them why they love working on a team and this is what we found out:

Name: Bogdan

Function: Junior Software Developer

“What I like the most about teamwork is that we learn from each other and this ensures our continuous professional development.”

Name: Calin

Function: QA Engineer

“I’ve always liked being surrounded by people. That’s why I prefer to work in teams rather than on my own. I think teamwork is much more productive. Each member has a well-defined role and if the team is led by a great leader, the success of the project is ensured.

Within the team, members can consult each other, share ideas and they can even have brainstorming sessions in order to find the best-suited solution for a certain task. Also, I believe this is the best way to learn and improve your knowledge in a faster way.”

Name: Cristina

Function: Mid Software Developer

“What I like about teamwork is that the exchange of ideas and knowledge that takes place among team members. On the other hand, it takes courage to expose your ideas to others, but at the same time, the other members give you the support and the opportunity to see things from a different perspective. And last but not least, the joy of success is felt more intense in the team than by yourself.”

Name: Beatrice

Function: Senior Software Developer

“Teamwork helps us learn new things, meet new people and share ideas. I like teamwork because I enjoy socializing, share my opinions and self-evaluate. Also, I like the feeling when I’m offering a helping hand and for me, teamwork means, first of all, a common goal, respect and balance.”

Do you think the above-mentioned aspects define you? Do you want to find out more about our team? To see how you can become one of us, take a look at our openings!

August 30, 2017September 30, 2021

Understanding Artificial Intelligence

Maybe if you work in the computer industry you have heard a lot about Artificial Intelligence. In the most cases, for non-technological people, AI is associated with movies like Terminator, Star Wars, Transformers, and others. And as you think, it’s a mistake.

AI it’s not the body, not the robot, not the terminator, these are just the recipients for AI. However, AI is already here today, we use it almost every day. So having a high interest in how new technologies will influence our day to day life, we’ve started to make a research.

For a better understanding, the specialists classify the forms of AI in three major categories, which are based on AI’ caliber categories.

Form 1) ANI or Artificial Narrow Intelligence – is an AI that has one dedicated purpose and is specialized in one area. For example, Alpha Go developed by Alphabetical Inc.’s Google Deepmind is the first computer program to defeat the strongest Go player in history. The algorithm from this computer is good at one thing: at playing GO, and nothing more. If you’ll give some other tasks to complete, such as solving mathematical problems, it will be like a non-technical person looking at a code.

At this stage, your natural human capabilities will be augmented by computational systems that help you think, solve problems more quickly and do any kind of things that can be mathematically represented.

Imagine that if you don’t know something or you have a question, in a few seconds you will know the answer from Google. Even Siri, Cortana and other AI are at this stage. In other words, ANI computers do exactly what we told them to do, so they are limited.

Form 2) AGI or Artificial General Intelligence – refers to a computer that is as smart as a human being, or a little bit more. A computer integrated into a machine could make any intellectual task that a human being could also do. This is the next big level after ANI.

The programmers work to AGI computers to make them come up with new things all by themselves. Imagine a generative design tool that comes with new designs all by themselves. Ohh, this already exists. Logojoy is an AI Design tool that can create logos. All you need to do is to enter a few characteristics and your logo is done. The aircraft designers from Airbus and the Autodesk University had made a 3D printed cabin partition that is designed using Autodesk generative design algorithms.

So, AGI can generate things and can come with their own solutions to define our problems but just if it’s being helped by a specialist who knows what data to introduce.

Form 3) ASI or Artificial Super Intelligence – is “an intellect that is much smarter than the best human brains in practically every field, including scientific creativity, general wisdom, and social skills” as Nick Bostrom, a popular Swedish philosopher at Oxford and the writer of the best seller “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies”, says.

ASI is the reason why everybody talks about Terminator, robots, and others. In fact, the experts said that is the most crucial topic for our future. ASI will change everything.

And now, what AI really means:

Think of a human being, AI is the brain and the robot is the body. The ultimate cars are full of systems, from the computer technologies that give the car permission to self-drive without putting your hands on the steering wheel to computers that identifies thousands of factors in a second and sends signals to lock your wheels. The computer is the AI and the car is the robot. Now I hope from our research you understand that AI is not a robot, is the computer that controls the robot.

In conclusion, the fact that we enter into a new age of the human history is true. The way technology is changing, is incredibly fast. Thinking about the fact that Google was founded 20 years ago, we can see how much it has evolved. Think about Facebook, it was founded about 13 years ago and where it is now. Within 20 years, nobody expected this. In fact, we have Google that finds things for us, we have Google translate that translate for us, we have automated manufacturing that is producing things for us. We have Siri, Cortana, application maps and behind all of this is a little AI computer.

How will AI change the way we live? We don’t know yet. But, we think that the change will be exponential.

August 24, 2017September 30, 2021

Learn our ways to avoid mistakes during project development

In software development, two projects are never exactly the same and there is no standard recipe for project success. But the issues that can appear are often quite the same. Being aware of all the external factors that every project depends on, what are the elements that keep an IT project team working as a whole in order to achieve project completion?

Share this list of methods to avoid mistakes during project development:

Keep meetings with the whole team and do them with regularity

Make sure that every team member knows the responsibilities and the priorities. Schedule time carefully, but never skip the meetings. Even if it takes 5 minutes to talk about what everyone is doing you ensure that all the information has passed to the surface. Mistakes are prevented before they happen if you keep up a good communication system.

Setting requirements

Requirements are documented needs and demands of the client and they represent the project’s end product. It requires analysis, time and an organized mind to understand and divide the requirements for project planning and tasks prioritization. Make sure you take your time to understand the specifications and keep a personal list of notes, while the project progresses. Don’t hesitate to ask for further clarifications if something is not specified enough.

Stop being rigid

Flexibility is important when you need to adapt to unexpected problems or to work with different methodologies. Learn how to offer feedback and accept it when is received. No matter if the feedback is positive or negative, a team should always consider it as a good opportunity to improve the communication gaps. Changes are good and facing challenges should be a reason to grow professionally to the detriment of staying in involution.

Be detailed oriented but never lose the big picture

Working on a team can take away your focus from a detailed oriented approach of an independent task. Some tasks may lose the priority in the project’s lifecycle, but everyone should always make time to come back and complete the unfinished task. Requirements sometimes change, so keep a clear mind on, whenever is necessary. The detailed focused approach must always fit perfectly in the big picture of the project.

Focus on the quality of work

Quality should not be left out instead of quickly solving the unfinished tasks. Keeping in mind the quality not only will help to prevent reworking for improvements and fixing errors but will also improve the return on investment of the project.

Those being said, we are curious to find out what methods do you use to avoid mistakes working on projects. If you have other tips, leave a comment below and tell us your own ways to avoid mistakes.

June 29, 2017September 29, 2021

4 non-financial benefits for programmers which are worth all the money

The managers who are in charge of hiring experienced programmers, know that the new employees need to be motivated in order to integrate and remain engaged in their day-to-day work. Thus, the process by which you have to assure the comfort and the necessary benefits becomes challenging.

While in the business environment of IT industry the earnings are higher than in other fields, today’s programmers have different needs and wishes. During the recruitment interviews we have lately held, we found that programmers with a certain work experience level are looking for new perks, such as:

Positive culture and good management

A pleasant and inspiring work environment has a positive impact on employees. Recreation rooms or a lightweight outfit can encourage the employee to be relaxed and become more proactive and productive at work. The culture of the company is the image that they show outward to their friends. At the same time, the project management and the people management share many of the same necessary skills and it has to be excellent, in order for the employees to be engaged with their company. In an IT company could be found similar skills in the managers’ successful plan: independent thinking, quality software, the ability to make decisions, facilitating communication between the client and the team and so on.

Remote work and flexible hours

A benefit that is more and more common in large companies in Romania is the possibility to work remotely and now it is a demand in job interviews. If the project and the customer location allow work from home, programmers will choose this. Regarding flexibility, it also should appear in work because being creative and relaxed could bring brilliant solutions and time-saving.

A successful project for a successful team

A good team stands out through excellent communication, compliance with deadlines and collective work. The chance to work in such a team increases a programmer’s interest in the company. In a successful team, the specific skills members hold and their different personalities are considered as key strengths. Successful projects can be measured by satisfied customers, proper software applications that develop over time and have a real impact on the market, but also the level of experience that the team acquires. In other words, a programmer really gets involved when his work in the project has a visible impact.

Challenges and contribution to a project

If there are no challenges, any programmer risks losing interest and cannot contribute with new ideas and strategies. At a certain level, programmers are looking for challenges in a natural way in order to acquire expertise and grow their careers. As long as the team’s efforts push the company forward, it is absolutely necessary for employees to feel appreciated. Other challenges that keep the employee motivated are new technologies or the presence and attendance in conferences, as well as an international working environment.

These benefits are clear examples that Romanian programmers begin to have a different view of a company’s success. It is a “win-win” process that allows the employees to develop their skills, to bring value to the team and later to be part of the business success.

These are some of the benefits that are considered at least as important as money. What other aspects do you take into consideration for your career-life balance?