The Software Development Department at BCC – an offer for demanding customers

The extensive experience of BCC in the creation and development of applications supporting business processes is especially appreciated by companies that expect the developed solution to seamlessly fit in with the existing system environment, regardless of the technological platform in use. Since the New Year, a new Software Development Department has been operating at BCC. We spoke to the department’s head, Michał Kunze, about the reasons for its establishment and the main tasks of this department.

The BCC brand is obviously associated in the market with SAP services and IT outsourcing. So how did the idea to expand the offer to include development services come about?

For a long time – responding to customer inquiries and observing their needs in the area of IT solutions for business – we have been creating dedicated solutions, such as SAP extensions in the SAP ABAP technology. We have completed hundreds of such projects – small and large – over the past dozen or so years.

In addition, on the basis of cooperation with many customers we have prepared over 30 proprietary products that are extensions to the SAP standard. As part of the so-called BCC EXTRA offer we provide such solutions as e-Deklaracje (e-Tax Returns) in SAP HR or EasyBanking, enabling the online integration of SAP with electronic banking systems.

What is more, in some cases, a business need proved to be universal enough for our solutions to be used both in companies working with SAP, as well as using other ERP systems. A good example here is the platform for electronic communication Edistrada. BCC consultants, who have delivered dozens of projects of SAP integration with various EDI platforms, got to know well their strengths and weaknesses. The knowledge gathered was used to develop a proprietary solution, which is used today by many companies working with various systems.

There were more such initiatives at the BCC Group to create business applications meeting various needs of especially large organizations. It is worth mentioning here BCC ECM that supports electronic processing, archiving and flow of documents and information, or BeeOffice – an innovative program for managing daily office work.

BCC has been successfully carrying out such work for a long time, so why has a separate Software Development Department been created now?

The purpose of the new department was to bring together these initiatives and competencies – so far dispersed in the organization. In this way we not only emphasize the importance of this business line of the company, but we also want to provide our customers with a team of architects and developers with extensive experience and broad programming competencies, focused on software development.

Our intention is to relieve the customer from having to engage in detailed selections of a technology or a programming language. The customer presents a business need to us, and our role is to propose the optimal solution, using this or that technology.

Our intention is to relieve the customer from having to engage in detailed selections of a technology or a programming language. The customer presents a business need to us, and our role is to propose the optimal solution, using this or that technology.

So what does the Software Factory offer of BCC consist of?

In addition to such solutions as already mentioned Edistrada, BCC ECM or BeeOffice, we prepare both custom solutions and solutions based on standard platforms, e.g. SharePoint, SAP.

We specialize in solutions that meet non-standard needs. Our consultants have extensive expertise in different technologies, so we are able to offer the optimal solution in a specific case. What makes us different is also deep business knowledge, which helps us form a solution concept.

Many customers surely have to deal with the dilemma: an on-premise solution, on their own platform, outsourced or even in the cloud. How does this software development offer of BCC fit in here?

I do not think that there is one universal answer to the question whether it is better to maintain the solution on your own platform, or to outsource it. It is important that at BCC we offer support for each of these variants.

Therefore, in addition to the application design and development, we also offer managed hosting services in the BCC Data Centers. We also provide service support for users, both for applications created by us as well as those already operating at the customer’s site.

In the case of our proprietary products, such as BCC Enterprise Content Management, BeeOffice or Edistrada, the customer can choose a usage model convenient for himself – on-premise, hosted or Software as a Service. Most often, we recommend the latter model to customers. The customer simply uses the solution – while we provide the rest: the maintenance and administration, service and development of new features.

What companies is this offer aimed at?

We have more than a dozen years of experience in the development of systems for leading Polish and foreign companies. We know the business realities and user requirements. This allows us to direct our software development offer to companies in various industries and at every stage of development.

For companies working with SAP, our offer is complementary to the development services in this area, which are provided in other BCC teams.

What do you mean by the term "a complementary offer”?

When the customer expects a solution to be built in the SAP technology or to be just integrated with SAP, our strengths as a provider are notable. These expert competencies in the field of SAP technology and applications, including the development of custom solutions, for example in the ABAP technology, as well as expertise in the ​​integration of SAP with other applications and years of experience.

There is yet another argument, associated with a customer's comfort as well as safety and the scope of responsibilities. One provider responsible for the development of software and its integration with SAP systems means fewer parties involved in the project, and this in turn ensures that we will avoid problems at the interface of different solutions. There will be no shifting of responsibility. The fewer the parties involved, the bigger the chance that a solution will be ready faster.

It is the same in the case of service or development. A single point of contact to support standard SAP applications and custom solutions means clear assignment of responsibility and a guarantee of faster troubleshooting.

There are a lot of companies on the market that develop custom software. What makes BCC stand out against this background?

Most often, IT applications are a result of the identification and definition of some needs – an activity, a service, a process – which can be singled out and computerized. Applications for business very rarely function independently of other, already existing solutions. Usually, they become a part of an infrastructure of systems, applications, extensions. This is what we specialize in – building solutions that fulfil their basic tasks, and at the same time can be an element of a complex landscape of systems.

We are distinguished by a working model. We have created a proprietary software development methodology, in which great emphasis is placed on accurate identification of the actual needs of customers, the quality of developed solutions and documentation. A business application operating in a complex IT environment just has to be reliable.

It is also an argument in our favour in companies with SAP. They are accustomed to a certain standard of managing projects, whether related to implementation or development. They also have high requirements as to the documentation of solutions, instructions and training for users. Developers are expected, first of all, to possess high skills and be creative. At BCC, we also incorporate high standards of work, based on global best practices and supported by our experience.

Interviewed by: Mirosława Huk, BCC Group