Custom Applications Practice

Our Custom Application practice provides a systematic methodology of application development tailored to our clients’ needs. It is at the heart of the InfoTech organization and continuously pumps new blood into our various business practices. We specialize in developing custom products for our clients, as well as proprietary products offered on a SaaS (Software as a Service) basis, such as our Research Publishing Automation System. The success of those products has allowed InfoTech to transform them into their own business practices.

Our application development process follows industry standards and best practices throughout the entire lifecycle of all our projects. This process includes:

• Requirements Gathering – This is a thorough process of identifying, structuring, and documenting our clients' needs.
• System Analysis & Design – This is the process of translating client needs identified during the requirements gathering process into a formal system design document. This document represents the “blueprint” for the application development phase.
• Software Application Development – This is the process of implementing the product based on identified requirements and system design. This phase is incremental and provides our clients the ability to evaluate and provide feedback along the way, from the beginning to final product release approval.

• Experienced IT Professionals – We maintain a fully credentialed staff of IT professionals, including system analysts, software programmers, database analysts and QA & QC personnel, all lead by experienced project managers.
• Microsoft Certified Partner – We are a Microsoft Certified Partner, a status that requires us to provide Microsoft with actual samples of applications developed for clients during the previous year. Microsoft confirms directly with our clients that the development and deployment were successful.
• GSA Certified by the US Government – We have developed various applications for the Department of Defense (DoD), and we are an approved vendor on the Government GSA (General Services Administration) schedule (GSA# 35FO22OT).
• Experience and Client Base – We have an extensive and diverse base of over 100 clients. Our clients come from both the private and public sectors, including the DoD, major banks, financial research organizations, media companies, privately held organizations, labor unions and many more.
• In-Shoring/US-Based Labor Only – InfoTech does not offshore any work overseas. We only use U.S. labor, offering our customers the highest quality expertise, supported by strong communication channels and a clear understanding of the U.S. business environment. With headquarters in New York, and a full backbone operation in Minot, North Dakota, this business model has been beneficial to InfoTech and our clients.

All activities pertaining to our Custom Applications practice are executed within the guidelines of a well defined, yet flexible, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) process.

The InfoTech Software Development Lifecycle process follows a methodology that emphasizes teamwork, collaboration, professionalism and engineering best practices. It is tailored to customer needs and project requirements: some projects require a more structured approach, while others require a more agile approach. The overall goal of this methodology is to promote rapid development of high quality software systems.

The main activities performed during the SDLC of a project are:

• Scoping and Initial Planning: Identifying the boundaries and characteristics of the project and recommending an approach (e.g. agile, structured, prototype).
• Survey and Analysis: Gathering, documenting and analyzing project requirements in collaboration with stakeholders.
• System Design: Designing the technical solution to implement project requirements.
• System Development: Implementing requirements based on the technical design.
• Verification Testing:Verifying that the system was built correctly, in accordance with technical specifications and required engineering standards.
• Validation Testing: Verifying that the appropriate system was built, in accordance with client specifications.

The building bricks of InfoTech’s SDLC methodology are:

• Collaboration Platform: An organization-wide, Web-based life cycle management system that supports communication, task management, file distribution, product release management and more.
• Production standards: Documentation templates, source code revision control, issue tracking and more.
• Programming Standards and Best Practices: Coding conventions, naming conventions, code commenting conventions, usability guidelines and more.
• Research and Design: Engineers participate in R&D efforts to identify new technologies. Research results are published and distributed as white papers.
• Virtualized Development and Testing Environment: An efficient and effective environment for application development and testing.