CROZ donated to the Pediatrics Department of the Pakrac County Hospital
For a fourth consecutive year, CROZ decided to give a donation to those in need instead of buying Christmas gifts for its business partners. For Christmas in 2008, we gave a donation to the Krijesnica Association. The donation given to Krijesnica went towards renovating its outpatient facilities for children seeking treatment at Klaićeva Hospital. For Christmas in 2009, our donation went into the hands of SOS - Croatia Children's Village. Our donation consisted of computer equipment that was distributed to the Lekenik and Ladimirevci SOS children's villages and to 5 SOS youth communities. For Christmas in 2010, we donated an EKG machine to the Pediatrics Department of the Vukovar General Hospital.
This year again we decided to continue with our children's theme so we donated an infuser and perfuser, equipment which is especially important when transporting infant patients from Pakrac to Zagreb.
When we visited the hospital in Pakrac, we confirmed the truth that good spirit and good will is oftentimes more important than financial resources that are allocated (or not allocated) by hospitals and to their departments. In fact, the young staff in the Pediatrics Department, headed by nurse Snježana, gave maximum effort to make days in the hospital brighter with toys and drawings on its walls and precisely because of this we are especially proud of the fact that this year's donation brought joy to these wonderful individuals.
Any assistance given to the Pakrac County Hospital is more than welcome and because of this we are once again thanking our clients for their successful cooperation which enabled us to give the hospital's personnel and its patients gifts that they truly needed.
CROZ has become an authorised partner for IBM B2B Integration (Sterling) products
In December 2011, CROZ achieved the status of an authorised partner for IBM B2B Integration (Sterling) products.
After Sterling products entered into IBM's standard portfolio, CROZ, as IBM Premier Partner, became involved in providing complete customer support for this range of products.
Our specialists have been trained to work with these products and we have also gathered personnel with established experience giving us the capacity to quickly and efficiently respond to all user requests.
In December 2011, CROZ became a SpringSource Training Reseller and is now an authorised education provider and seller of SpringSource courses in Croatia.
Through this partnership, CROZ has expanded its educational offerings. All SpringSource courses are held in the Learn@CROZ Education Center.
Please contact us at learn@croz.net for any additional information.
CROZ develops a mobile application for Croatia Airlines
Today's mobile platforms allow you to quickly view information regardless of your location using touch sensitive high-resolution screens which create ultimate user experiences. As a result, it is very important for companies to display their services through applications on mobile platforms. In addition to the wide range of services that CROZ offers related to Enterprise Architecture, it also offers a service for making mobile applications for two leading mobile platforms: Apple's IOS platform and Google's Android platform.
For the purposes of Croatia Airlines, Croatia's national air carrier and member of Star Alliance, CROZ has developed a mobile application that allows iPhone users even easier, faster and more efficient travel planning. This iPhone application can be downloaded for free at the iTunes App Store and its users can more easily access information on organising air travel.
The Android application and a version for the iPad is currently under construction.
On December 6th, 2011 the Lotus Advent @ CROZ Event, which focused on IBM's Social Business tools, was held at the Matis Absolute Business Lounge under the motto ‘’Collaborate in a modern way, party in a classy way’’. The purpose of this event was to introduce IBM tools as supportive of trends in business communication. Specifically, the IBM Connections solution is a next-generation social business network that promotes communication among employees, partners and customers, and it creates an informal repository of knowledge. The Rational Requirements Composer Tool was presented at the event as a valuable collaboration solution for development projects.
The presentation given by Hrvoje Veselko from Vipnet was particularly interesting because it uniquely showed the direction in which business communication is changing, how advancement in technology is keeping up with these changes, and why new standards and challenges in business communication are surfacing, which must be adhered to and overcome by organizations.
Through a live demo, CROZ’s Davorin Mudrovčić demonstrated how version 8 of the Lotus Domino platform, which has been improved by a set of new functionalities and tools, provides a different and more modern approach to electronic mail, knowledge sharing, tasks, and overall collaboration.
This gathering brought together business managers, team leaders and IT Departments, heads of Human Resources Departments and heads of Marketing Departments from the public, banking, telecommunications, energy, retail and IT sectors, who showed great interest in the Social Business topics presented at the event.
The Lotus advent @ CROZ event ended with a concert by the popular band Nipplepeople.
The Learn@CROZ education center is offering a 2+1 deal during the month of December. If you register three people from the same company, two of them will pay the full price while the third will be registered for free.
This deal is valid for all CROZ and IBM courses offered in December and registered for after 24.11.:
With colder days around the corner, the 11th issue of FYI by CROZ has arrived with an interesting topic - Enterprise Architecture. Specifically, the role of IT in regular work has long been indispensable; however, the complex relationships between these two units creates difficulties and precisely this Enterprise Architecture aims to align IT with the business life cycle and at the same time utilize it to promote the business. Discover how our users in APIS, the Tax Administration Office and T-HT look at EA by reading the article on Enterprise Architecture.
The new FYI issue also addresses the IBM BPM brand, which offers organizations direct control over business processes and provides automatization allowing decisions to be made consistently and in line with an organization’s strategic goals.
In the section Technologies and Trends, we give an overview of Rational CLM, IBM RAFW and Deployit.
For those interested in news from the mainframe world, our Daniel Vencler writes about ZBX, an infrastructural addition which allows consolidation of the mainframe and distributed platforms.
The third Adriatic Mainframe Conference was held in Dubrovnik from November 6-8th.
The conference gathered mainframe users from Serbia, Slovenia, and Croatia, and it was focused on users' realistic experiences with new projects on the mainframe platform as well as mainframe's positioning in the modern IT system.
Numerous interesting presentations on topics dealing with real, live projects of leading companies in the region (APIS IT, FINA, ZABA, Postal Savings Bank of Serbia) on the mainframe platform illustrated how this computer still today - as well as throughout the last 47 years - successfully completes the most demanding information jobs.
The Adriatic Conference provided a great opportunity for users to share their experiences and discuss problems they face in their everyday work. The presentation on DB2 for z/OS 10 beta program at ZABA and the presentation on Java on z/OS, given by Mile Pekić from the Postal Savings Bank of Serbia, were especially interesting. Ivan Pozderović's inspiring presentation on IBM Security zSecure suite V1.13 beta program at APIS IT showed that the mainframe platform has even awakened the interest of younger generations. CROZ's Dražen Spalatin represented mainframe's older generation by speaking about the most common problems that occur during z/OS installation and maintenance.
This was the third regional mainframe users' conference which once again demonstrated that there is still a lot to say about mainframe and that the networking, sharing of experiences and collaboration amongst mainframe users in the region is always welcome.
Announcing: Lotus Advent@CROZ Event
At the beginning of December, CROZ is organising a Lotus Advent@CROZ Event at which IBM Social Business tools will be presented.
The IBM Connections solution is the new generation's social business network that promotes communication between employees, partners and clients and creates an informal repository of knowledge. The Rational Requirements Composer tool will be presented at the event as a valuable collaboration solution for development projects.
After the interesting and interactive presentations given by Hrvoje Veselko (Vipnet), guests from Ascendant Technology, and experts from CROZ, we are inviting you to a friendly gathering with a live performance by the Nipplepeople band.
Date and time of the event: 06. December, 2011 from 15h to 20h.
Location: Matis Absolut Lounge, Trg Stjepana Radića 3
Join us for the event whose motto is ,,Collaborate in a modern way, party in a classy way''
Please confirm your attendance by email to mkokotovic@croz.net.
Media sponsor
Pulse Comes to You held
"Pulse Comes to You" was held for the first time in Croatia on October 13th at CROZ's education center. Specifically, IBM Pulse is IBM's global conference on Tivoli tools and management of IT services which has been held annually in Las Vegas.
Tivoli tools from the IBM Tivoli Security portfolio were presented at the conference to participants who deal with security data centers (TIM, TAM, TCIM, TSIEM, TEM, zSecure, Guardium, ISS).
The presentation on Unified Recovery Management was especially interesting as it offered solutions to issues like: data backup, restoring in a consistent way through one central system and approaching in such a way as to prevent a catastrophic Disaster Recovery.
Presentations were given on IBM Tivoli Service Request Management, which offered a wide range of stories and visions about integrated management of IT services and reasons for explaining why IBM differs in this segment, while Bojan Koprivčić concluded the conference by speaking about the IBM Maximo Data Center Infrastructure Management tool which can help us make more sophisticated and energy-efficient data centers.
The first Croatian ,,Pulse Comes to You'' gathered users from the public, banking, telecommunications, energy, commercial and IT sectors and it proved that there is a need and demand in many domestic companies for events and themes like this one.
Breakfast with Enterprise Content Management technologies held
On September 29, 2011, the workshop ‘’Breakfast with Enterprise Content Management technologies’’, which gathered many clients from the public, banking, telecommunications, and IT sectors, was held in CROZ’s education center.
Current technologies that deal with the acquisition, storage, and processing of documents in addition to business process management were discussed at this workshop.
The breakfast was opened by Roko Roić introduced the basic concepts of Enterprise Content Management as a strongly connected series of methodologies and tools that cover the area of document management and the processes related to its contents.
Jan Čustović’s presentation on Alfresco ECM and Davor Čengija’s presentation on the IBM BPM (Business Process Management) platform as the right solution to implementing business processes were especially interesting.
Our experts at this workshop thoroughly presented Alfresco ECM, an enterprise open source system by Alfresco Inc. which offers a complete stack of ECM products and the CMIS standard. Namely, standardizing communication between different systems is a necessity in the IT industry and the vendors of the Enterprise Content Management system responded to this challenge by defining Content Management Interoperability Services. CMIS is an SOA layer that defines communication protocol and query language and is standardized protocol for retrieving data from the ECM system. CMIS is the counterpart for SQL in the ECM industry and it is an important lever in all migration processes and system development processes on the ECM platforms.
Photos from the workshop
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Announcing: Adriatic Mainframe Conference 2011.
For a third year in a row, CROZ proudly invites you to the Adriatic Mainframe Conference.
The theme of this conference will be newer projects on the mainframe platform, which will be presented by clients themselves, in addition to the positioning of mainframe in a modern IT system. The conference will provide a great opportunity for users to share their experiences, but also to talk about problems they face on a daily basis.
This conference will gather mainframe computer users from Slovenia, Serbia, and Croatia who will present their projects and technologies as well as their practical experiences.
Time:
06. - 08.11.2011.
Location:
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Register as soon as possible and join us at the Adriatic Mainframe Conference!
On September 20, 2011, for the fourth time in a row CROZ renewed its ISO 9001 certificate, which it was initially issued by the Croatian department of the Swiss certification company SGS Adriatica d.o.o. at the beginning of 2008. SGS performed its certification assessment of CROZ’s established quality system in the field of IT Professional Training and it affirmed that its management system is in accordance with the required standards. In 2009, CROZ affirmed this certificate and extended it to its company’s overall activities which, aside from education, include Enterprise Information System Integration and Development as well as Consulting.
Through consistent renewal of this certificate, we have again proved that we are systematically able to fulfill the service requirements in accordance with the policy scope and with the organization’s goals.
Partnership with Mulesoft
Beginning this fall, CROZ became an official partner for the American company Mulesoft's products and services whose business is founded on an exceptionally open implementation of ESB (software bus, Enterprise Service Bus), key elements of every SOA environment. The Mule ESB Community Edition is the most useful open source bus, but its real value is presented by Mule ESB Enterprise Edition, the supplemented and strengthened edition which comes hand in hand with products of large software players.
The sole fact that Mule ESB is used in over 3000 production environments and that 5 of 10 of the largest banks, in other words 35% of companies from Global 500, implement Mule ESB is a sufficient enough indicator of the product's quality. Mulesoft is especially proud of its implementation in the company H&R Block, which specializes in supporting the calculations of annual income tax where production workload successfully carries no less than 13,000 servers with Mule ESB!
Along with Mule ESB, Mulesoft offers theTCat - Enterprise Tomcat Server, a fully supported implementation of Apache Tomcat with additional ''enterprise'' features, and Mule iON, an integration platform ''in a cloud'', for those who don't want to worry about infrastructure but need a stable and powerful integration environment.
CROZ and ISP Card in a joint blood donation campaign
On 04.10.2011., a joint blood donation campaign was organized in CROZ’s Education Center Learn@CROZ. CROZ classrooms were turned into a medical clinic of the Croatian Institute for Transfusion Medicine where voluntary blood donors from CROZ and ISP Card fearlessly participated in the action which collected a total of 46 units of blood.
Given that this was the first such initiative, an even larger turnout is expected in early 2012 when the next voluntary blood donation campaign is anticipated.
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New courses in the Learn@CROZ education centre
In spring of 2011, we began offering new courses, in addition to the existing courses, in the following five areas:
For all further information please contact us at learn@croz.net or at anikolic@croz.net.
The 10th FYI issue is published
Indeed, we have made it to the 10th FYI issue and have entered into our 5th year of publishing! Over these five years, FYI has covered numerous interesting current topics ranging from SOA, Spring, DataPower, and Filenet, to request management and Jazz RTC, Complex Event Processing and Cognos, quality management and mainframe.
The topic of this new FYI issue deals with agile methodologies in software developments, which are gaining more momentum in many organizations. Through a review of the most abundant methodologies such as Lean, Scrum, XP, and DAD, you will learn how agile methodologies can become your allies on the path to successful completion of projects.
January 2011 marked two years since the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted the Strategy for the development of electronicbusinesswhich was aimed at connecting individual sectors through a networked administration office. Our sources from the CentralState AdministrativeOffice for e-Croatia, APIS IT, and FINA, share with us key steps, some of which are yet to be taken.
As usual, we have presented new trends and technologies: Rational AppScan – a tool for analyzing the security code, IBM Maximo – an asset management system, Jaspersoft BI Suite platform and Activiti – open source tool for modeling and implementing business processes.
Additionally, we have presented to you a story through which you can learn about our team at our newly established Beograd office.
CROZ finalist of the IBM's Rational 2011 Business Partner Innovation award
Zagreb, June 16, 2011 – CROZ has been named finalist of IBM's "Rational 2011 Business Partner Innovation Award" which is awarded once a year to IBM partners worldwide for their quality and innovation in the application of IBM technologies and services. CROZ is a finalist in the category ''Innovation in Enterprise Modernization''.
Awards in this category are given for solutions which streamline existing information systems that enable the deepening of performance values for existing systems, knowledge and processes. CROZ's project, which competed in this category, is a project for the modernization of the batch environment in FINA. This project included the migration of the mainframe batch processing from COBOL language to JAVA language that enabled the further development of modern application solutions built upon innovative software technologies while concurrently using existing legacy mainframe applications.
Receiving such global recognition is a great achievement and an honor for a Croatian company, especially when taking into consideration that most of the finalists were companies from larger markets. This year's award serves as confirmation of the continuity of CROZ's quality, and it succeeds awards it received in previous years: in 2010, finalist of the ''IBM Beacon Award'' in the category Outstanding Software Delivery in Product and Service Innovation with Rational; in 2008, awarded the ''IBM Rational Award'' in the category Outstanding Rational® Requirements & Portfolio Management Solution and finalist of the ''IBM Beacon Award'' in the category Rational® Excellence in Software Delivery.
Websphere event held at Ušće
On June 3, 2011 in Belgrade, the CROZ Belgrade office and partner Kim Tec held a half-day event ''Spring gathering at Ušće with news from the world of IBM Websphere technology''.
Participants from financial, government and partner companies were presented with the latest trends and examples of using IBM Websphere technology.
The keynote speaker Paul McKay, who is one of the most popular presenters from the IBM Websphere Decision Server field, gave an interesting presentation on the application of Websphere Decision Server technology in various industries (financial, public administration offices, energetics, etc.) and he demonstrated to his audience the advantages of fraud detection and risk management within IT organization systems.
CROZ presented its experience with and suggestions for the optimal selection of a BPM (Business Process Management) solution. A live demo on the topic IBM BPM platform (Lombardi), which was presented by our expert Davor Čengija, drew notable interest from participants. Participants also showed marked interest toward this approach in the development of future applications which prompted them to ask numerous concrete questions during the presentation. There is, without a doubt, a growing interest in BPM and it is only a matter of time before concrete implementation of this solution takes greater momentum.
The event took place in the beautiful surroundings of Ušće at the ADA restaurant where participants enjoyed tasty specialties in a relaxing atmosphere.
See you soon at another equally as interesting and attractive event in Belgrade!
QED conference held on quality in enterprise development and project portfolio management
The QED conference was held from May 22-24th. The theme of the conference was Quality in Enterprise Development and it involved presentations of trends and best practices in the area of Project Portfolio Management.
This year's conference gathered over 120 participants from Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia who attended numerous presentations and workshops during which they were able to learn more about agile software development methodologies, IT trends in banking and successful organization of software testing.
Two workshops were held at the conference. One of the workshops focused on the topic Scrum while the other workshop, lead by IBM expert for Change Management Vladimir Vuk, demonstrated, in an interesting way, the impact that good communication within a project team has on the success of the project.
Beautiful weather and the scent of the sea didn't, however, hold back over a hundred conference participants from attending the presentations. The presentations given by professionals from the leading Croatian companies ZABA, FINA, T-HT, and Raiffeisen Bank on their experiences were especially interesting.
The QED conference wasn't without an entertainment component. About twenty participants launched the conference with a Discovery Dive – a dive, for starters, who were able to catch a glimpse of the hidden treasures of the Adriatic Sea. Meanwhile, the workshops were held in the magnificent ambient of Pakovo Selo.
We'll see you next year!
We are announcing a WebSphere Event at Ušće
On Friday, June 3, 2011 at 09:30 am, an event ‘’Spring gathering at Ušće with news from the world of IBM WebSphere technology’’ in organization of CROZ Belgrade and Kim Tec will take place at Restaurant ADA, located at Bulevar Nikole Tesle BB, Belgrade.
In breathtaking surroundings complimented with ADA’s tasty specialties, you will be able to learn more about the latest trends and examples of using IBM WebSphere technologies from interesting and professional presentations given by experienced experts from the IBM WebSphere world.
Paul McKay, who will be the keynote speaker, is one of the most popular presenters from the IBM WebSphere Decision Server field; he will speak about the recently popular theme of Fraud Detection and Risk Management.
CROZ experts will present their experiences and recommendations about the optimal selection of BPM (Business Process Management) solution.
This gathering is intended primarily for managers and directors of IT departments, marketing directors and directors of business units who most frequently require IT support (credit sectors, managers of sales channels, product managers). Presentations are tailored to all types of industries that demand the most IT support (financial sector, public sector, telecommunications, etc.).
Participation at the event is free of charge, but the number of participants is limited.
The QED Conference is soon approaching
The date of the QED Conference is around the corner, 22.-24.05.
This year, we have organised additional interesting activities. These include lunch and workshops in Pakovo Selo and a dinner accompanied with entertainment by Danijela Pintarić and Just The Pine. Hurry up with your registration and we'll see you in Primošten!
Lunch and workshop in Pakovo Selo
Lunch will be held in Pakovo Selo at the Etnoland Dalmati complex which provides a unique opportunity to enjoy the ambiance of an authentic Dalmatian village, entertainment with traditional music, and a delicious lunch rich with specialties of the Dalmatian hinterland. Following lunch, we will spend the afternoon in interactive workshops on the topics PM and Scrum.
Dinner with Danijela Pintarić and Just The Pine
On Monday evening, Danijela Pintarić and Just The Pine will perform exclusively for you.
Also, all course attendants will be given a discount on last minute conference registration.
The course will take place on 09 – 10 June 2011.
Course duration: 2 days
Location: Educational Centre Learn@CROZ, Lastovska 23
An Invitation to Spring System(atic) Check, 24 March 2011
On Monday, 24 March 2011, at 9:00 am, a Spring system(atic) check will take place at our Learn@CROZ Education Centre.
With delicious and skillfully prepared dishes, in a pleasant atmosphere and conversation with our facilitators find out about this spring's must haves in the world of systems.
This time we have prepared a series of interesting and miscellaneous topics that are going to be presented in a quick and a dynamic way. In this way, you will get first-hand insight into Lotus Domino portfolio news, identity management in a complex IT environment and protecting digital identities and information by means of additional authentication. You will also check up on a new Tivoli working station management tool, find out about news in the world of virtualization and virtual machine backup management as well as learn how Maximo platform manages assets of a whole range of organizations in the region. Finally, we are going to present a successful project story on the implementation of the series of technologies mentioned into an efficient and inexpensive IT infrastructure of the first Croatian private hospital.
This gathering is aimed at heads of IT departments, system departments and teams, system engineers, IT architects and project developers.
Participation at the workshop is free of charge, but the number of participants is limited.
You can apply for the workshop at e-mail: mkokotovic@croz.net.
Final day for early registration to QED conference
Only today - do not miss the benefits of early registration to QED conference.
CROZ Certified Alfresco Reseller and Recognized Partner
Alfresco is renowned as one of the leading Enterprise Content Managemnet system developer and is the only among the biggest companies to offer its solution both as an open source enterprise alternative. Yearlong experience of company's founders and leaders along with its propulsive appearance on the market have imposed Alfresco as one of the first choices for big companies' ECM solution.
Believing that a closed system is a main IT industry cost generator and with a view towards enterprise integrations, Alfresco solutions are based on open standards. Alfresco is the first ECM system having implemented open standard Content Management Interoperability Services which should enable cooperation among similar systems in a business environment.
CROZ recognized Alfresco's quality and started with distribution as a certified Alfresco reseller, and regarding our yearlong experience in the implementation and integration of solutions built on Alfresco, we developed a team of top Alfresco developers having the status of Alfresco Recognized Developers thus meeting the criteria for the company to participate in Alfresco Recognized Partners program.
For any detailed information related to Alfresco Inc. products, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Discovery Dive at QED conference
And this year we have decided to start the conference on a relaxed tone so we will organize Discovery Dive for Sunday afternoon, 22 May. This dive is for beginners and will allow you to peek into the hidden mysteries of the Adriatic and witness it's breathtaking beauty.
To all those who have been overwhelmed by Discovery Dive last year and also for those who weren't so brave but have decided that nothing will stop them this time we offer a possibility of meeting the magnificent underwater world.
So join us at QED conference and enjoy magnificent beauty of the Adriatic.
If you are interested in Discovery Dive, please indicate that when completing registration form.
CROZ Announces QED Conference 2011
Quality in software development is a result of influences of numerous technological and human factors which interact on many levels. The premise of the QED conference is that quality can be achieved but how can we achieve it? Architecture, analysis, development, integration and testing are key concepts we have to keep in mind but in search of quality we must not stop only at that.
Together with technology topics, this year in the PPM (Project Portfolio Management) part of the conference we will deal with development processes, project and portfolio management as well as human resources as one of the main factors of successful projects.
Explore these topics with us during two days through a number of interesting presentations, workshops and round tables and see quality from various perspectives.
And this year we promise you a lot of CROZ style good time. We wait for you at the dance floor :-)
Period: 22 - 24 May 2011
Location: Primošten (Hotel Zora), Croatia
Book May in your calendar and join us at QED conference!
Zagreb, January 30, 2011. - CROZ has been nominated as a finalist for the prestigious IBM Lotus Awards 2011 which is awarded once a year to business partners worldwide for contribution to the worldwide industry of products, services and solutions based on Lotus offerings. IBM evaluated nominations from five continents and many countries across the globe, competing for top honor in 15 categories and CROZ was nominated in the category Distinguished Business Achievement Award for Central and Eastern Europe region. This award honors the top IBM PartnerWorld Business Partners who have demonstratedthe ability to open new regional markets as well as significantly impact IBM Lotus software's position with the customers.
To achieve yet another global recognition is an enormous accomplishment and honor for a Croatian company, especially considering that most of the finalist companies operate in bigger markets.
CROZ has renewed ISO 9001 certificate
January 13, 2011 - CROZ has renewed its ISO 9001 certificate that was, at the beginning of 2008, granted to it by the Croatian office of the Swiss certification company SGS Adriatica d.o.o. In 2008, SGS has executed certification assessment of the established quality system in CROZ for the field of IT Professional Training and has confirmed that the quality management system is in conformity with the requirements. In 2009, CROZ has reaffirmed its certificate, and has extended it to its entire business operation which, apart from education, also includes Enterprise Information Systems Integration and Development, and Consulting. ISO 9001 certificate for all the mentioned fields was also renewed in 2010.
By constant renewal of this certificate, we have proven once again that we systematically accomplish agreed service requirements in accordance with our policy and organizational goals
CROZ donated to Vukovar General Hospital Department of Pediatrics
Even third year in a row CROZ decided to reallocate the money aimed at buying Christmas gifts for our business partners and donate to the ones in need. For Christmas 2008 we donated to Krijesnica Association. The donation was aimed at decorating Association's polyvalent space in Klaićeva street used by children treated in day hospital. For Christmas 2009 the donation went to SOS Children's Village Croatia. Our donation included computer equipment that was distributed across SOS Children's Village Lekenik and Ladimirevci as well as 5 SOS Youth Facilities.
For Christmas 2010 we decided to keep with the theme that somehow, through the years, imposed itself– the children, and the forgotten door of the Department for Pediatrics of the Vukovar General Hospital could hardly even wait for someone to knock at them. Friendly doctor Bandić was really pleased when we contacted him about donating to the Department with what they needed the most. The decision was not very difficult, and in just a few days a new EKG arrived at the Department. That was a good reason for us to come to Vukovar and meet wonderful people who work at the Department for Pediatrics trying to make the stay in the hospital as easy as possible for the children and their mothers, who are allowed to stay with them.
Leaving Vukovar, it was hard to calm the heart that was full of pride due to the fact that work of every member of our family at CROZ through this year made it possible to bring even small piece of hope and happiness to those who, most of the time, feel abandoned and forgotten.
Any help to the Vukovar General Hospital is extremely welcome, thus once again we are grateful to our clients for successful cooperation that enabled us to show hospital staff and little patients that they were not forgotten.
CROZ achieved the IBM’s Industry Authorization medallion
Barcelona, November 9, 2010 - At the beginning of November at the initial Smarter Industries Symposium IBM announced its new Industry Authorization initiative and CROZ is one of nine channel partners who have met the requirements and achieved the Industry Authorization medallion and also one of two business partners that entered the pilot program for government.
The goal of this program is to choose partners with specific industry knowledge and then authorize them so that customers can recognize those special industry-oriented skills. The Industry Solutions Specialty is targeted at solutions built for 11 industries - telecommunications, banking, insurance, retail, health care, government, energy and utilities, automotive, aerospace, electronics, and chemicals and petroleum. In particular, IBM is targeted developers building solutions on top of its Industry Frameworks - middleware solution platforms aimed at helping businesses to fit technology to specific industries. Benefits from the industry specialty are designed to speed application development and time-to-market for industry-targeted applications.
By constantly investing in our expertise we are planning to be a reliable industry specific IT service provider familiar with customers' industry specific issues and achieving IBM’s Industry Authorization medallion represents recognition of our effort.
The Industry Authorization program will go live in January 2011.
CROZ is among 10 best at "Deloitte Technology Fast 50" competition for the second time
Zagreb, October 27, 2010 - Company CROZ has placed, for a third year in a row, on Deloitte’s list of 50 fastest growing technological companies in Central Europe. Holding 7th place with achieved growth of 1329 percent, CROZ is the only Croatian company on the list.
This recognition is another indicator of CROZ’s stability and continuity of business activity quality, especially if we take into account an economic crisis and considerable pessimistic environment for business activity in general. In 2008, CROZ took a high third place on the same competition and in 2009, seventeenth place. In 2008, on Deloitte’s list of 500 technological companies with fastest growth in the EMEA region, which includes Europe, Middle East and Africa, CROZ held spot 21 thanks to achieved five-year growth of 4391 percent.
For the past eleven years in a row, Consulting & Audit Company Deloitte has organized "Deloitte Technology Fast 50" competition, which sets out a ranking order of the fastest growing technological companies in Central Europe. The ranked list is composed on the basis of continuous revenue growth in the last five years. What’s specific about it is the fact that the companies voluntarily sign up for participation in the competition.
We Announce Big Shift for Smarter Banking Workshop
In CROZ’s Education Centre on November 12, 2010, within Lotus Portal and Business Intelligence brunch a half day workshop called Big Shift for Smarter Banking will be held. Namely, the results of the research by IBM’s Institute for Business Value have shown the trend of growing mistrust between banks and their clients. Clients believe that banks operate primarily for the purpose of self-interest against the interests of its clients - and surprisingly, a lot of the bankers agree with that! Central regulatory authorities assist in achieving mutual trust through standardization and regulations such as SEPA, or the latest Basel III. In order to adjust, banks need to make so called Big Shift in deeper understanding of their clients.
This workshop will provide answers to banks on how to make that big step and how to redefine their business models ‘’smarter’’, and how to establish and enhance their relationship with clients.
The keynote speaker is Paul Davis from IBM USA (World Wide Banking Industry Leader), who will share his 16-year world wide experience in the banking industry. CROZ will provide the answers adjusted to the local banking industry.
The workshop is intended for banks, especially bank’s marketing and sales departments, and departments oriented to developing new banking products. Participation in the workshop is free, with a limited number of seating places.
09:45 - 10:30 Necessity of Big Shift for Smarter Banking - Paul Davis, World Wide Banking Industry Leader, IBM Software Group The banking industry is clearly still under stress and institutions are looking to change the way they operate by revisiting the fundamentals of their business, reshaping business plans, looking for new insights, improving customer experience and evaluating risk through a different lens to become smarter about how they operate. At IBM, Smarter Banking is pragmatic approach to helping customers to tackle some of their toughest problems offering a practical way forward leveraging IBM's experience, assets, and ability to innovate. From our vantage point, leading banks are the institutions which choose to adopt technology in a practical manner doing some very specific and clever things to enable the appropriate amount of change.This presentation will cover the reasons why banks need a big shift, and will give participants an IBM’s view on how this change should be done through four main business domains: customer care & insight, core-banking transformation, integrated risk-management, payments and securities. This presentation will be held in English.
10:30 - 11:00 Customer Care & Insight – optimizing the customer experience - Paul Davis, World Wide Banking Industry Leader, IBM Software Group This presentation will focus on one of the four business domains mentioned in the previous presentation, and will potentially give an answer to the most important question at this moment: how banks will regain trust, how they will gain a deeper insight into customer needs and optimize customer experience through different communication channels, such as internet portals (e.g. Portal from Lotus family), cell phones or chat. This presentation will be held in English.
11:00 - 11:15 Break
11:15 - 11:45 Marketing technologies of the future – understand the client and regain trust - Mario Mustapić, Business Solutions Consultant for Banking, CROZ The presentation will cover in more detail the topic of regaining clients' trust in banks. One of the recent IBM acquisitions, Unica, provides innovative marketing solutions that enable banks around the world to discover what customers respond to and gives them the opportunity to exploit this knowledge to interest buyers for their products and services.
11:45 - 12:15 Core banking – where does it begin, where does it end? - Krešimir Mudrovčić, Business Development Executive, CROZ “Core banking” is a quite generic and flexible term and is defined differently across various banking organizations. Accounting department probably interprets core banking in a way that is not relevant to marketing or product development department. Moreover, size and complexity of core banking solutions may become overwhelming for its users, and some functionalities like loan, deposit and credit processing may be transferred to so-called “satellite applications“. This presentation will give an overview on how to balance between core banking and satellite applications, and give best trade-off practices to achieve efficient and innovative banking..
12:15 Lunch
CROZ has established a company in Serbia
Belgrade, October 5, 2010 - At the beginning of October, CROZ established a company in Serbia, with headquarter in Belgrade. After many years of engagement in the region, this is the first company that CROZ has established outside Croatia.
After numerous successful projects, CROZ has decided to take a big step and open a company in Serbia. Recognizing huge development potential in the Serbian market and the need for professional IT services, CROZ’s Belgrade office will offer consulting services, implementation of software technologies and custom software development services. CROZ's services will be primarily aimed at large companies, as well as companies that have a need for high quality IT solutions. High quality of service, including consistently meeting deadlines and innovative implementation of proven world solutions, will be a major CROZ trump on the Serbian market.
The head of the CROZ office in Belgrade is Igor Đurić who comes from the Komercijalna Banka Beograd. His extensive experience in software development, intended for the USA and the EU markets, has successfully implemented his work in one of the largest Serbian banks where he gained valuable experience in applying information technology in a challenging business environment.
„QED feat. PPM“, an afterthought - Conference Dedicated to Software Quality and Project Portfolio Management
The QED feat. PPM conference was held in Primošten from 12 to 14 September.This year we decided to merge our Q.E.D. and PPM conferences into one, and at one place to present trends and best practices in the fields of quality management in software development and project portfolio management.
The aim of the Q.E.D. part of the conference was to show how the quality of software development is reachable, especially if the development process is carefully defined and at the end confirmed by quality testing. The PPM part of the conference dealt with the eternal theme of successful project management. Therefore, the presentation of Vladimir Vuk, IBM Change Management expert, opened the official part of the conference. Vuk emphasized that to manage a complex project while aiming to complete it successfully requires more than reading books and mastering of all available PM methods; it requires experience, attitude, skills in verbal and nonverbal communication, time, and above all, courage.
The alluring call of the sun and the sea did not prevent around a hundred of conference participants to gather in a large number of presentations. Round tables on the topic of Enterprise architecture and PPM in financial institutions were of a special interest, as well as presentations of practical experience from the leading Croatian companies APIS IT, ZABA, PBZ Raiffeisenbank and T-HT.
Alan Mirko Poldrugač, whose presentation was of exceptional interest, presented a successful project of establishing a functional testing system at Raiffeisenbank Austria that has emerged as a result of joint effort of RBA and CROZ experts. This exact project was the encouragement to open the CROZ testing centre, and the mentioned solution deserved its place among the finalists of the prestigious IBM award "IBM Beacon Award" in the category Outstanding Software Delivery in Product and Service Innovation with Rational.
Guest speakers from IBM spoke about global work experiences from the field of quality software development management. The presentations Staying ahead of the hackers by Martin Stenkilde from IBM, and (In)security of web applications - weakest link? by our Neven Biruški evoked a special glow in the eyes of real programmers present.
QED did not lack entertainment at all. Twenty participants began their conference socializing at Discovery Dive – a dive for beginners, which allowed them a moment to peek into the hidden secrets of the Adriatic. There was laughter during dressing up of diving suits and courageous entries into the world under the sea. What is most important, there was no giving up.
An educational tour of the ethno village Pakovo was an impressive introduction to the welcome dinner during which the customs and way of life of the Drniš region inhabitants from the beginning of last century were presented. The tour was additionally spiced up with ham and local wine. Dinner was complemented by talented musicians of the brass band Ventilatori, who played under clear skies.
The second night was the excitement many participants waited for – performance of Mila Elegović accompanied by band Just the Pine "forced" our dear guests to dance and sing merrily under the roof of a terrace covered with grapevines at the restaurant Uzorita in Šibenik.
Another conference is behind us. This year’s conference was with a slightly different concept and in another equally beautiful town. From conference to conference, a true recipe for success is the quality of presenters and current topics they cover. Combined with the hospitality and effort put forth by the organizers to make socializing more comfortable for everyone.
Thanks to all who were part of the QED in Primošten and see you next year!
A few photo details from QED
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Summer School of Internet Security for Children from Lekenik
Zagreb, September 4, 2010 – This sunny September Saturday was spent with children from SOS – Children's Village Lekenik. The aim was to raise children’s awareness about threats on the Internet, the necessity of saving and protecting personal and other data, as well as some basic rules of behavior on the Internet. There were 20 children from fifth to seventh grade of elementary school who participated at this education. They showed us that they are familiar with the Internet, and in particular, Facebook. Almost all children have a Facebook profile, which they primarily use for correspondence with friends, as well as sharing pictures. Through a few fun examples and games, our instructor showed the children possible misuses of personal data which have become widely available on the Internet, and helped them by simply adjusting privacy settings for their own protection.
The workshop also discussed the importance of regular backup of various documents (readings, essays, math homework, vacation pictures) to a USB memory stick, DVD or CD in case the computer breaks down and everything we find important just disappears.
At the end, all children became Facebook friends with our instructor. They sent him grammatically correct and properly spelled messages with a greeting and signature, in capital letters, dots and commas proving that they know how to nicely behave on the Internet.
All in all, it was nice for a few hours to leave the adults’ world of informatics and discover what is troubling and entertaining for Ana - computer expert, Karlo - the legend, Lorena, Dennis, two Katarinas, Martina, Josip, Nevenka, Nikola and other children.
Photos from the summer school of informatics in Lekenik
Summer is ending, but there is a new and sunny FYI
The topic of the new, ninth issue of FYI is the newly opened CROZ testing centre. With lifelong software development for our clients, we have gained experience and knowledge in development methodologies and processes of software testing. Therefore, we have decided to open a testing centre and propose to interested organizations our testing services as a guarantee to quality software products.
All the secrets of successful project management are revealed by IBM’s Change Management Expert Vladimir Vuk. To manage a complex project while aiming to complete it successfully requires more than reading books and mastering of all available PM methods; it requires experience, attitude, skills in verbal and nonverbal communication, time, and above all, courage.
As usual, we present you with new technologies and trends: cDocs - a system for managing business processes and documents, an interesting comparison of Liferay and WebSphere Portal, development on the iPhone platform, and IBM Lotus Notes & Domino.
In regards to employees’ education in the Learn@CROZ education centre our customers from the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute and Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank share their experiences.
Moreover, we bring a report from the QCon Conference that was held in March this year in London.
CROZ has achieved two IBM Tivoli Deployment Accreditation certifications
CROZ has recently achieved two new IBM Tivoli Deployment Accreditation certifications: AA-Level for IBM Tivoli Monitoring and Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager.
This achievement is a result of our knowledge and experience in implementation of Tivoli solutions, and our experts’ continuous learning and training. CROZ thus became the first IBM Business Partner who has achieved AA accreditation certifications for Tivoli products in Croatia.
IBM’s new Reseller Authorization group Social Software and Unified Communications
In January this year, IBM started a new Software Value Plus initiative, which through the controlled distribution limits sales of software licenses to Business Partners with the sufficient level of expertise. As part of this initiative CROZ has satisfied all relevant requirements and has proven itself once again as a partner that by its clever solutions contributes to the value IBM's products bring to clients.
CROZ has re-certified in nine out of eleven Reseller Authorization groups and has thus become part of IBM's new sales strategy.
On July 19, 2010 IBM introduced another Reseller Authorization group called Social Software and Unified Communications (software for social networking and unified communications technologies) which includes the following groups of products: IBM Lotus Connections, IBM Lotus Quickr, IBM Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony and IBM Lotus Sametime. CROZ has also certified for this Reseller Authorization group.
World famous IT analysis company International Data Corporation (IDC) announced in the beginning of July 2010 that IBM is the worldwide market leader in social networking software. The analysis was made on the basis of total sales revenue generated in 2009, and it is interesting to note that in 2009 revenue from sales of these kinds of software on a global level increased more than 55 percent compared to the previous year.
‘’Using the software for social networking is changing the way people work and it significantly increases pace of business" said Alistair Rennie, General Manager, IBM Lotus Software.
According to IBM’s research, an employee spends 2 hours a day on searching for the right information within his/her organization. With social networking software this problem is reduced because teams on remote locations are better connected and are able to share information much faster to achieve better results. Connecting people and information increases the efficiency of employees and ultimately reduces operating costs.
IBM's portfolio of social networking and unified communications software helps organizations of various sizes to work smarter, to become more agile, and encourage innovation. CROZ’s certified experts for this IBM portfolio with their knowledge and expertise will know to identify the best characteristics of these excellent tools and will be able to meet all business requirements of its clients.
CROZ has become a SWVN Partner for InfoSphere
CROZ has become the first (and for now the only) IBM Software ValueNet Business Partner for InfoSphere in Croatia. As a Value-Added Reseller, CROZ meets the prerequisites for selling InfoSphere software according to the conditions of IBM Controlled Distribution. InfoSphere products are part of Information Management software group, and they mostly cover fields of Data Warehousing and Master Data Management. This partnership is another step for CROZ to provide quality assistance and support to its customers in the future.
We were also part of IBM Rational Innovate 2010
In Orlando, Florida from 6 - 10 June, the traditional yearly Rational conference that gathered more than 3000 IBM Business Partners from all around the world was held. At the conference a number of successful solutions based on Rational tools were presented, and among them there was a solution from Croatia. Namely, Alan Mirko Poldrugač, whose presentation was of exceptional interest, presented a successful project of establishing a functional testing system at Raiffeisenbank Austria that has emerged as a result of joint effort of RBA and CROZ experts.
The same solution deserved its place also among the finalists of the prestigious IBM award "IBM Beacon Award" in the category Outstanding Software Delivery in Product and Service Innovation with Rational in May this year.
The presentation of Alan Mirko Poldrugač may be also heard at our Q.E.D. conference in September in Primošten.
CROZ "IBM Beacon Award" finalist
Zagreb, May 19, 2010. – Company CROZ has been nominated once again as a finalist for the prestigious IBM award "IBM Beacon Award" intended for business partners worldwide. CROZ is the finalist in the category Outstanding Software Delivery in Product and Service Innovation with Rational.
"IBM Beacon Award" is awarded once a year to IBM partners from around the world for innovation and quality in applying IBM technologies and services.
In 2008, CROZ was awarded in the category Outstanding Rational® Requirements & Portfolio Management Solution -for knowledge and contribution in creating specific development processes by using Rational Method Composer tool.
To achieve such global recognition is an enormous accomplishment and honor for a Croatian company, especially considering that most of the finalist companies operate in developed markets. Being among finalists of IBM Beacon Award comes as the crown of many years of CROZ's quality work with Rational tools. The evidence to that is also the recently opened CROZ's testing centre, whereby interesting solutions in software testing by using specialized Rational tools were presented.
CROZ opened its Testing Centre
On April 29, 2010 CROZ introduced its testing centre in front of 70 clients from government, finance and telecommunication companies. At the opening, which was of exceptional interest, software testing services, along with a range of IT systems were presented that CROZ testing center will provide to its clients.
Testing services are primarily designed as outsourcing services to companies that desire to monitor and improve the quality of software and IT systems. Outsourcing model is particularly attractive to companies that lack their own resources for testing or do not want to invest in tools and establish testing systems. CROZ testing centre services include:
Implementation of quality management system
Assistance with development of test methodology, test strategy, test plans and test cases
Static testing; revision of program code and documentation
Functional and performance testing
Security and penetration testing
Education and consulting in the field of testing, methodology and testing tools
Acceptance testing and beta testing
Monitoring of software projects
Maintenance and improvement of IT quality is one of the most important aims of every IT organization. Nevertheless, the practice of software and system testing is still often neglected in most organizations, which generally results in costly and embarrassing failures, and can be in many aspects detrimental to any company. Encouraged by our customers’ satisfaction and excellent results of our projects of establishment of testing systems and implementation of testing methodologies, we decided to round up our offer in that field. By opening a testing centre, CROZ offers a complete and comprehensive testing service, and clients may, according to their needs, choose the type and manner of testing services provision.
More details about the presentations can be found below:
This year we decided to merge our Q.E.D. and PPM conferences in one, and at one place to present trends and best practices in the field of quality management in software development, and in the field of project portfolio management.
Quality in Enterprise Development (Q.E.D.) is the part of the conference which deals with software development. Namely, quality software is a clear goal of every serious development, but answers to many questions are not perfectly clear. How to achieve quality? Is quality of software possible to define? Which quality perspectives are necessary to satisfy? The aim of the Q.E.D. part of the conference is to show how the quality of software development is still reachable.
Portfolio Management is in the center of attention of most managers in various project-oriented organizations. How to collect all relevant information, how to prioritize projects and how to successfully manage the resources are just some of the questions with which the PPM (Project Portfolio Management) part of the conference deals with.
Period: 12 - 14 September 2010
Location: Primošten (Hotel Zora), Croatia
Book September in your calendar and join us at Q.E.D. feat. PPM conference!
At Rational Technical Brunch, CROZ will on April 29, 2010 open its testing centre.
By opening a testing centre, CROZ will strive to expand a positive trend of quality care and propose quality outsourcing testing service to all interested partners. At this event, CROZ wants to share with its clients and partners a part of its experience in this field, and enhance the thinking about the meaning of quality within every organization.
Agenda:
13:00 - 13:15 Registration and coffee
13:15 - 13:30 Welcome note and opening of testing centre- Vedrana Miholić, CROZ
13:30 - 14:00 Road to quality - Goran Kelečić, CROZ
This presentation will, through examples from practice show proven approach in achieving quality software by application of Rational Unified Process methodology and provide the basic point for establishing a quality system software within the organization.
14:00 - 14:30 Automation of testing - Miroslav Zaninović, CROZ
Automation of testing brings many benefits and savings. We will show how complete process of testing software can be integrated and automated, from user requirements entry to presentation of results and bug reports by using IBM Rational tools.
14:30 - 15:00 (In)security - Neven Biruški, CROZ
How secure is your website? Security holes appear at all levels, from poor hardware and networking infrastructure, because of vulnerable code. This presentation will answer the question of how can we test vulnerabilities of this kind.
15:00 Socializing at afternoon brunch
The second Adriatic Mainframe Conference - an afterthought
In Dubrovnik from 11 to 13 April, the Adriatic Mainframe Conference was held. The second regional conference gathered mainframe users from Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia. The conference was focused on actual user experiences with more recent projects (SOA, Java, WebSphere, Linux, SAP, Oracle) using the mainframe platform and on the current position of the mainframe in the modern IT system.
The presentation of APIS IT with the topic SOA in OIB (Personal ID number) implementation in Croatia opened the official part of the conference. FINA and HZMO presented their projects on mainframe, while guest speakers from IBM presented global work experiences with z platform.
Absolute hit was the presentation of Mile Pekić from Poštanska štedionica Serbia, who has with concrete examples demonstrated how to measure z/OS capacity utilization and reduce software costs.
A proof that mainframe computers still infuse trust of large customers performing even the most demanding IT tasks and offer the unbeatable combination of reliability, performance and technical abilities, demonstrated almost unanimous positive conclusion of the round table discussion on the topic Consolidation on Mainframe Platform; Arguments for and against.
Three rainy days were not able to ruin extremely relaxing and comfortable atmosphere, which was an excellent stimulant for experience exchange between customers, and the conversation about the problems they encounter in their daily work, and best practices solutions.
The second regional mainframe conference has achieved its goal once more and served as stimulus for the idea of regional interconnecting enhancement, experiences exchange and cooperation of mainframe users.
FYI by CROZ enters into its fifth year
With the eighth issue of FYI, we have entered into the fifth year of publishing our specialized IT magazine.
The topic of the new FYI is Quality Management. Is it possible to define and measure quality are almost philosophical questions with which the author familiarize us with the text where he gives a short overview of software development best practices, verifying quality dimensions, strategies, methodologies and standards essential for achieving quality of IT products.
Mystery of Service Oriented Architecture is enlightened by our SOA experts and clients from leading domestic companies that have bravely went into SOA adventure. As usual, we present you with new technologies and trends - IBM Rational Quality Manager and Adobe Flex.
Furthermore, do not miss the last article from the series of articles about mainframe computers.
As sugar at the end, we bring you an interesting story of our American colleague from South African Republic.
On 11-13 April, Adriatic Mainframe Conference will be held in Dubrovnik. CROZ will be hosting this regional conference for the second time. The conference will gather mainframe users from Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia, and will be focused on actual user experiences with more recent projects (SOA, Java, WebSphere, Linux, SAP, Oracle) using the mainframe platform and on the current position of the mainframe in the modern IT system.
A series of presentations on the subject of real, living projects on the mainframe platform will show how mainframe computers successfully perform even the most demanding IT tasks and offer the unbeatable combination of reliability, performance and technical abilities today as they have over the past forty-six years. Global work experiences with mainframe will be presented by interesting speakers from IBM.
The conference is an excellent opportunity for user experience exchanges and, consequently, gives you a chance to talk about the problems users deal with in their daily work.
On 10 March, IBM Lotusphere Comes To You 2010 will be held in the Hotel International. Lotusphere will present the Lotus portfolio and new accomplishments in the area of information availability, innovation enhancements and improvements of business results by using IBM Lotus and IBM WebSphere Portal solutions and services.
Lotusphere is comprised of business and technical parts which will be held simultaneously. CROZ presenters will speak about the following subjects:
Lotus Domino support in your business operations (presentation of CROZ applications based on Domino platform)
With Websphere portal through public administration
XPages - IBM Lotus Domino development of Web applications
During Lotusphere, CROZ will also have a DEMO room separated from presentations and where our offerings could be looked through in more details.
Find out, hear about user’s experiences, listen to technical presentations, inform yourself about new technologies that form today’s businesses, including social networks, portals, real time communication and cloud computing, and join us at IBM Lotusphere Comes To You 2010.
Another acknowledgement for CROZ
In February 2010, CROZ has achieved the IBM Excellence Award in the category of highest revenue growth in Croatia for 2009. This is another confirmation of CROZ’s status as an IBM Premier Business Partner.
CROZ has renewed ISO 9001 certificate
January 29, 2010 - CROZ has renewed its ISO 9001 certificate that was, at the beginning of 2008, granted to it by the Croatian office of the Swiss certification company SGS Adriatica d.o.o. In 2008, SGS has executed certification assessment of the established quality system in CROZ for the field of IT Professional Training and has confirmed that the quality management system is in conformity with the requirements. In 2009, CROZ has reaffirmed its certificate, and has extended it to its entire business operation which, apart from education, also includes Enterprise Information Systems Integration and Development, and Consulting. This year has renewed ISO 9001 certificate for all the mentioned fields.
By constant renewal of this certificate, we have proven once again that we systematically accomplish agreed service requirements in accordance with our policy and organizational goals.
CROZ has re-certified for IBM's software partner
IBM has recently started a new Software Value Plus initiative that requires considerable, rigorous conditions in order to attain partnership status in software portfolio. It is necessary to prove a competence for each field, and CROZ is certified in nine out of eleven groups. Thereby CROZ has proven its high quality competence in the field of IBM software technology and became one of the rare European partners that has achieved such high certification status.
CROZ has re-certified as an IBM software partner for the following IBM Reseller Authorization Groups: IBM Information Management Data Management, Lotus Portal, Tivoli Automation, Tivoli Enterprise Asset Management, Tivoli Security and Compliance Management, Tivoli Storage Management, WebSphere Business Process Management, WebSphere Core and Rational software.
IBM envisaged this initiative with the aim of spreading a network of skilled and competent Business Partners that promote IBM technologies and provides quality support in the fields of implementation, consultation and education while giving customers real solutions, lowering business risk, and enabling faster profit gain. CROZ has proven itself as a partner that by its smart solutions adds value which usage of IBM products brings to customers.
Over the years, CROZ has gained significant experience and knowledge, and by using IBM technologies successfully completed numerous difficult and demanding projects. CROZ has asserted itself as a reliable partner that by its expertise and dedication responds to customers’ requirements by developing quality solutions which contribute to achieving set business goals.
CROZ has added to its palette another partnership - VMware Professional partnership. We have achieved partnership status with VMware at the end of last year and therewith entered into a sphere of suppliers for virtual solutions based on x86 and x64 processor platforms. With this partnership, we have expanded our offer of products and services, and we have provided to our customers the opportunity of virtualization on distributed platform with assistance of VMware business solutions.
CROZ has now become a SWVN Partner for Cognos
CROZ has now become a IBM Software ValueNet Business Partner for Cognos. As a Value-Added Reseller, CROZ meets the prerequisites for selling Cognos software according to the conditions of IBM Controlled Distribution. Cognos, recently acquired by IBM, is a recognized leader and service provider for high-quality Business Intelligence and Performance Management products and solutions. This partnership is another step for CROZ to provide quality assistance and support to its customers in the future.
Latest Education Calendar at Learn@CROZ Education Centre
You wish to attend specialist courses concerning: Java, JSP, Build Release Management, Spring, RUP, Use Cases, Object Analysis and Design, WebSphere Business Modeler, Business Modeling...?
Zagreb, October 22, 2009 – Company CROZ was placed, a second year in a row, on Deloitte’s list of 50 fastest growing technological companies in Central Europe, holding a 17th place with achieved growth of 691 percent, as best placed Croatian company.
This recognition is another indicator of CROZ’s stability and continuity of business activity quality, especially if we take into account an economic crisis and considerable pessimistic evnir9onment for business activity in general. Last year, CROZ has taken a high third place on the same competition, and 21st place on Deloitte’s list of 500 technological companies with fastest growth in the EMEA region, which includes Europe, Middle East and Africa thanks to achieved five-year growth of 4391 percent.
Consulting & Audit Company Deloitte, already ten years in a row, organizes "Deloitte Technology Fast 50" competition, which sets out a ranking order of the fastest growing technological companies in Central Europe. The rank list is composed on the basis of continuous revenue growth in the last five years, and what’s specific about it is the fact that the companies voluntarily sign up for participation in the competition.
More information about "Deloitte Technology Fast 50" competition on:
"PPM CROZ 2009", an afterthought - Conference Dedicated to Project Portfolio Management
In Rovinj on Red Island from 4 to 6 October, the second annual PPM CROZ 2009 conference was held. This conference, dedicated to Project Portfolio Management, was organized by CROZ with support of PMI Croatia.
Interesting themes concerning projects, portfolios, plans and resources, were covered by presenters from our domestic project offices from leading financial institutions RBA, PBZ, HYPO and FINA.
The presentation from Vladimir Vuk, Managing Consultant Organizational Change and Strategy at IBM Global Services and the star of CROZ PPM conferences, opened the official part of the conference. Vladimir presented a Better Change Method - a method that assists in transformation of organizations, by providing answers to questions on how to prepare organizations and their people to changes that projects bring, and what organizational culture is and if it can be changed at all.
As usual, of special interest were round tables with themes ‘’Initiative Management’’ and ‘’People – the Most Valuable ‘’Asset“. An additional attraction of the round tables was special guest Stjepan Car, Chairman of the Board, KONČAR-Electrical Industries Inc., that with his unique way of specifying problems and their solutions delighted all conference participants.
The first evening Borna Šercar and Tomislav Vasilj, who jointly perform under the name of Amarosi and who create music in a truly interesting way, ensured the participant’s relaxation with sounds of pleasant music. The second evening was marked by somewhat harder musical expression by rock bank Cranck with whom conference participants partied throughout the night.
All in all, another CROZ conference has shown, under the light of reflection, and also after the lights were off, that expertise, professionalism and human relaxation dosed in a proper manner, are key to success of every project, and that people (light motive of the conference) are really the most valuable ‘’asset“.
CROZ has achieved three new IBM Tivoli Deployment Accreditation certifications
CROZ, as the first IT company in Croatia, has achieved three very valuable certifications in the field of asset management.
By gaining IBM Tivoli Deployment Accreditation AA-Level for IBM Tivoli Asset Management for IT and IBM Tivoli Maximo Asset Manager products, and A-level for Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager, CROZ has confirmed its focus in achieving highest standards in technical certification and implementation of IBM Tivoli tools and solutions.
Pink FYI in sign of Project Portfolio Management
The topic of the new FYI, a magazine in which we present projects, interesting speakers and technologies, is Project Portfolio Management. PPM is concerned with the internal question how to estimate which initiatives are worth turning into projects and how to optimize costs, in order for the right things to be done at the right time.
Project Portfolio Management and other related topics constitute a framework of our 2nd PPM Conference which will be held in Rovinj, on 4-6 October.
The seventh issue of FYI brings you an interview with Vladimir Vuk, Managing Consultant for Organizational Change and Strategy at IBM Global Services and the star of CROZ PPM Conferences, who will present the Better Change method – a method that assists in systematic and successful management of transformational changes of organizations.
The column Technologies and trends presents Rational Focal Point for Project Managers and IBM WebSphere ILOG JRules v 7.0. A series of articles about mainframe computers are also continued.
Project stories from the MoD and Dukat talk about interesting IT solutions.
We are very proud of Knjigalica –online exchange market for second-hand school textbooks, and especially, we are proud of the Facebook version. We wanted to assist in school textbooks exchange, and in few simple steps provide quality search for necessary textbooks. Using Knjigalica is totally free, and does not require user’s registration and login. This year, because of the economic crisis, free textbooks for pupils of elementary and secondary school have been abolished. Consequently, many parents will be challenged with financing their children’s school textbooks. The solution is CROZ’s Knjigalica.
Pupils and their parents may advertize their old textbooks and search through already published advertisements. Knjigalica does not intermediate in negotiation between parties, but recommends donation and exchange of textbooks without charge. Knjigalica is maximally simple for use; all textbooks approved by Ministry are already entered in the base and it is enough to enter 2-3 letters in order for the system to recognize them. Knjigalica has also a flexible search engine that enables fast and simple advertisement browsing. For members of a new generation, there is also Facebook version of the application.
PPM CROZ 2009
Register for the conference: PPM CROZ 2009
You can probably remember that we have organized our first conference on the subject of Project & Portfolio Management two years ago. Last year was reserved for Quality in Enterprise Development (QED) conference and now in 2009 we are going back to the themes concerning projects, portfolios, plans and resources although this time with fresh experiences and different speakers who will primarily be talking about how to successfully balance management of several different concurrent projects.
In the afternoon of the conference opening day, October 4, we will be presenting an unusual music project realized by collaboration between Ante Gele and Borna Šercar who jointly perform under the name of Amarosi, and who will undoubtedly create a truly interesting musical expression.
On the second day, in a series of introductory presentations, we will among others welcome Renata Glojnarić, executive director of Zagreb Soloists and Samobor Autumn Music Festival. Renata will share with us her experiences in organizing big cultural events consisting of several connected projects and will explain how to let creativity loose without jeopardizing set financial and time frames.
Central part of the conference is reserved for presentations which we are sure many of you are awaiting with great anticipation. Our old acquaintance, Vladimir Vuk, is coming to us with a brand new but notably current subject – How to prepare one’s organization and people in it for the changes projects bring? What really is organizational culture and can it even be changed in the first place? These are the questions to which Vladimir will try to answer, and since this same speaker sparked a lot of interest two years ago with his presentation about project portfolio management we have no doubt whatsoever how our guest from Amsterdam will be the star of the conference once again.
When it comes to our domestic project offices, we again have guests from the leading financial institutions RBA, PBZ, HYPO and FINA.
The conference is supported by the PMI branch, so we will also be hearing presentations by their experts coming from the Croatia branch. All PMI members will receive admission fee discount.
P.S. Don’t forget to use the advantages of an early registration (until August 20, 2009)!
WebSphere Application Server Now Free for Development
There is some good news from IBM coming in this time of crisis - WebSphere Application Server v7 is from now on free for development. In addition to already free version of WebSphere Application Server that comes with Rational Software Architect and is used for internal application activation, it is now possible to use the full version of WAS for functionality and performance testing, as well as integration testing of developed applications, at absolutely no charge.
CROZ entered the Focal Point for Project Management beta program
During the next couple of months, CROZ will take part in the Rational’s family new tool beta program. Focal Point for Project Management is a project management solution which, as most of Rational’s new tools are theses days, is Jazz platform based. The idea behind the tool is to enable agile approach of software development project management and in time replace Rational Portfolio Manager, the tool currently in use. This beta program will enable CROZ to gain earlier insight into the features of the tool, allowing us to have a say in the look and functionalities of the final product which is set to see the light of day in the last quarter of the year.
CROZ introduced SOA Competency Centre
SOA Competency Centre is a title given by IBM to its prominent business partners who have dedicated themselves to implementation of SOA solutions using IBM technologies. With strong commitment, professional expertise and successful projects CROZ managed to prove itself as a reliable partner capable of answering all of the technological challenges imposed by the dynamics of modern business.
So, what does SOA Competency Centre mean for our customers? Well, first and foremost, it is a guarantee of quality for the solutions delivered, at the same time serving as a staunch supporter of our customers who have recognized the necessity for improvement of their own IT system, by providing services of education and consulting concerning the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) field.
SOA Competency Center@CROZ is the only such centre in the region.
SOA CC@CROZ presentation
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CROZ – LRS Exclusive Partner
CROZ became the exclusive Levi, Ray & Shoup, Inc. (LRS®) partner for Croatia, company which is the leading solution provider for print management on the international market. Their several times awarded solution for critical print business process management has over 5000 installations worldwide.
By the way, LRS has been providing services of centralized print management for more than 25 years now, to customers who need print management solutions of great features, simple install and maintenance, solutions which influence open standards and protect investments in current infrastructure as well as security interfaces and transfer options including document encryption and compression.
If you happen to be a user of distributed environment, mainframe computer, SAP system or any other enterprise system, then this is the print solution for you.
CROZ d.o.o. and Altova in Partnership
CROZ d.o.o. and a renowned American-Austrian company Altova sealed a distribution agreement for Altova tools in Croatia, making them available for you to acquire directly from us.
Altova is most famous for its top quality tool XMLSpy, indispensable when working with XML, SOAP and similar technologies, but Altova offering of quality software does not stop there for it also includes: StyleVision, DiffDog and SchemaAgent which considerably facilitate production of XSLT styles, XSL:FO transformation files as well as file management concerning projects intensely using any form of XML.
Other Altova fraction deals with data management and modelling in the broadest possible sense. In the preceding role here we have MapForce, a tool for data mapping between different sources and formats, such as XML, relational databases, EDI, Excel, Web services and so forth. UModel is an UML language modelling tool which supports direct code generation from a diagram, while DatabaseSpy serves as a central place for managing relational databases.
Ever since recently, CROZ can commend itself with yet another interesting partnership. More specifically, just a few days ago CROZ became TIBCO’s partner for Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia. TIBCO is a worldwide leading company, firmly anchored in the Gartner’s magic quadrant relating to more than one area (SOA Governance, Master Data Management, B2B, ...), and is particularly prominent in the telecommunications sector, retail and banking.
This partnership anchors CROZ’s position of a regional leader in the field of SOA architecture and implementation.
Coming of spring lures out a new issue of FYI by CROZ
Along with the sun and warmer days, new and more cheerful issue of FYI comes to you too. In line with cover’s brighter tone, we bring you a couple of sea stories from CROZ conferences and an Estonia itinerary as well.
Current issue’s topic deals with Complex Event Processing – a paradigm which enables detection of elementary event samples and complex event creation in real-time.
Further, what we would like to extract from the table of contents is the interview with Ms Dunja Jurica, chairwoman of APIS IT board, where you can find out more about exciting projects such as OIB (Personal Identification Number) and projects related to the EU accession.
FYI’s sixth issue, as is customary, introduces new technologies and trends. This time we bring you IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence and IBM SOMA, as well as the first of the series of articles about mainframe computers.
You can also read about interesting IT solutions in our project stories from Volksbank, Zagreb Land-Registry and Večernji list.
Your copy of our new FYI is also accessible on our website.
Adriatic Conference of Serious Computer Users - an afterthought
On 9-10 March, Adriatic Conference of Serious Computer Users was held in Dubrovnik. CROZ served as the conference host in collaboration with companies Alcad, Slovenska Bistrica; SBS, Beograd; SRC.SI and S&T Slovenija, Ljubljana.
The conference gathered mainframe users from Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia and was oriented on real user experiences concerning more recent projects (SOA, Java, WebSphere, Linux, SAP, Oracle….) on the mainframe platform as well as on the position of the mainframe in a modern IT system.
Series of interesting presentations on the subject of real, living projects on the mainframe platform owned by regional leader companies (APIS-IT, FINA, Impol, Naftna industrija Srbije, Železnica Srbije) have proven how mainframe computers today the same as the last forty-five years successfully perform even the most demanding IT tasks.
Adriatic conference was an excellent opportunity to exchange user experiences and to talk about the problems users deal with in their daily work. Speaking of problems, one in particular - Making work on mainframe inviting for the “Facebook” generation – was in fact the theme of the roundtable, held among the representatives of APIS-IT and HZMO, Croatia; ZPIZ, Slovenia and NSZ, Serbia, who talked about their own experiences concerning employment and education of young mainframe experts.
This being the first regional conference of serious computer users so far, it should serve as an incentive to grow the idea of regional cooperation, experience exchange and mainframe user collaboration.
New course in Learn@CROZ education centre: Threats and best ways of protecting confidential data on your personal electronic devices
You own electronic documents or information on secrecy of which Your reputation, workplace or the future of Your company is depending?
Are You in finance, sales, marketing or management and Your portable computer is loaded with confidential agreements, tables with financial data while the information You store on network resources or send over the Internet is extremely sensitive?
Confidential data you keep on Your potable computers, mobile phones, USB disks or similar devices, and the data you send via the Internet or intranet are exposed to a variety of threats.
Get to know what the threats are and lean in the easy way how You, Yourself, can protect Your data and therewith your company and your job as well.
Course duration: 1 day
Date: April 2, 2009
WebSphere Trends and Directions for 2009
Jerry Cuomo, IBM Fellow and CTO for WebSphere, outlines its Top 10 WebSphere trends and directions for 2009.
Speaking of our market, probably the most interesting ones are Business Rules (ILOG!), DataPower-lution and Extreme Scale.
CROZ achieved Tier1 partnership level for System P Server series
CROZ has further expanded its competency spectrum in the IBM technology field, gaining the Tier1 partnership for System P Server series.
System P Server series is intended for more demanding users and applications, having characteristics such as top performance, high availability, exceptional efficiency when it comes to energy consumption and excellent virtualization features based on PowerVM virtualization technology.
Gaining the competence of System P, CROZ has, alongside its already well tuned team of experienced and certified experts in the filed of Power, AIX and Linux technologies, significantly empowered its abilities in providing enterprise solutions in the system and application integration field.
CROZ’s renewed and expanded range of ISO 9001 certificates
January 29th 2009 CROZ has renewed and expanded its range of ISO 9001 certificates, initially granted at the beginning of 2008 by the Croatian office of the Swiss certification company SGS Adriatica d.o.o. Last year, SGS performed a certification assessment of CROZ’s instituted quality system in the filed of IT Professional Training and confirmed the management system to be in accordance with the Standard requirements. This year, CROZ has reaffirmed its last year’s certificate, extending it to its entire business operation which apart from education also includes Enterprise Information Systems Integration and Development, and Consulting.
With this certificate we have strengthen our competitiveness in the present and the targeted markets alike, proving yet again our ability to systematically meet the agreed requirements for services in accordance with the scope of organization’s policy and goals.
Latest Education Calendar of Learn@CROZ Education Centre
You whish to attend specialist courses concerning: Java, JSP, Build Release Management, Spring, RUP, Use Cases, Object Analysis and Design, WebSphere Business Modeler, Business Modeling...?
On 9-10 March, Adriatic Conference of Serious Computer Users will be held in Dubrovnik. Behind the phrase “Serious computer” you will naturally find IBM mainframe computers which today the same as the last forty-five years successfully perform even the most demanding IT tasks and offer the unbeatable combination of reliability, performance and technical abilities.
This is a user-oriented conference, therefore the focus of the conference are the users; actual user experiences (good and bad), so rest assured no technological novelties or announcements of new hardware and software versions are in store.
Conference will be dealing with more recent projects (SOA, Java, WebSphere, Linux, SAP, Oracle….) using the mainframe platform, presented personally by the users and will also be discussing the current position of the mainframe in the modern IT system. The conference is an excellent opportunity for user experiences exchange and, consequently, gives you a chance to talk about the problems users deal with in their daily work. Speaking of problems, one in particular (Make working on mainframe inviting for the “Facebook” generation) is the theme of the roundtable which will be held on the second day of the conference.
CROZ, a Zagreb-based company, will be hosting the conference in collaboration with Alcad, Slovenska Bistrica; SBS, Beograd; SRC.SI and S&T Slovenia, Ljubljana. The conference gathers mainframe users from Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia.
Registrations for the conference are officially open, so hurry and don’t miss early spring in Dubrovnik!
ILOG – IBM’s newest acquisition!
IBM has reinforced its position in the field of Business Rule Management Systems (BRMS). Its recent acquisition of ILOG, a company that has JRules in its portfolio – leading BRMS implementation in Java, demonstrates IBM’s determination in making business and technological sides of IT work closer together.
ILOG’s portfolio covers four areas:
Business Rule Management Systems, BRMS
Business data visualization
Supply chain planning, design and management tools
With this acquisition, IBM’s initiative "BPM Powered by Smart SOA" has gained new strength in dealing with business processes and business rule management.
CROZ proclaimed 21st technological company with fastest growth in Europe
Zagreb, 01 December 2008 – Company CROZ holds spot 21 on this year’s Deloitte’s list of 500 technological companies with fastest growth in the EMEA region, which includes Europe, Middle East and Africa. CROZ has achieved a five-year growth of 4391 percent.
Each year, Consulting & Audit Company Deloitte organizes a "Deloitte Technology Fast 50" competition, which sets out a ranking order of the fastest growing technological companies in the EMEA region. The rank list is composed on the basis of continuous revenue growth in the last five years, comparing the results for the period from 2003 to 2007, and what’s specific about it is the fact that the companies voluntarily sign up for participation in the competition. This is the first time the competition has been conducted in Croatia, in partnership with the Croatian Employers’ Association, where CROZ, thanks to the revenue growth of the fantastic 4391 percent in the last five years, has taken 21st place among 500 technological companies from 23 countries in the respective region.
Earlier this year, within the scope of the same competition, CROZ has also taken a high third place on "Deloitte Technology Fast 50" competition; the rank list of the 50 fastest growing technological companies in Central Europe. More information about "Deloitte Technology Fast 500" competition on:
Zagreb, November 18th 2008 – CROZ held a breakfast on the subject of Enterprise Asset Management at our education centre "Learn@CROZ" as a part of which concrete possibilities of applying enterprise asset management solutions were introduced using IBM Maximo technologies.
In these times of global recession and saving, controlling and efficiently managing one’s own assets can not only be a great way of saving money and increasing profit but moreover a key competitive advantage of the organization. Therefore, the concept of enterprise asset management has attracted many who along with a delicious breakfast and relaxed atmosphere could find out more about the problems arising from enterprise asset (non)-management and possible solutions thereof.
Aleksandra Bogdan, CROZ’s business analyst, opened the breakfast with a presentation of how to implement the process of enterprise asset management as well as what are the business advantages of the solution.
Particularly interesting was the presentation of Bartosz Soroczynski, director of IFMA (International Facility Management Association), who talked about the studies concerning the usage of IBM’s tool for enterprise asset management in banking and public sector.
Damir Bacalja (IBM) and Tomislav Majdančić (CROZ) offered concrete solutions by introducing IBM Maximo products, demonstrating at the same time how lacking the appropriate tool makes it impossible to provide answers to the requirements in mention in a quality manner.
CROZ HOLDS THIRD PLACE ON THE LIST OF THE FASTEST GROWING TECHNOLOGICAL COMPANIES IN CENTRAL EUROPE
Zagreb, 14 October 2008 – Company CROZ has occupied high third place on this year’s Deloitte list of 50 fastest growing technological companies in Central Europe thanks to realised five-year growth of 4391 percent.
Consulting/audit company Deloitte has, for the ninth consecutive year, organized "Deloitte Technology Fast 50" competition, which determines a ranking order of the fastest growing technological companies in Central Europe. The ranking list is composed on the basis of continuous revenue growth in the last five years, comparing the results for the period from 2003 to 2007, and what’s specific is the fact that the companies voluntarily sign up for participation in this competition. This is the first time the competition has been conducted in Croatia, in partnership with the Croatian Employers’ Association, where CROZ has, thanks to the revenue growth of the fantastic 4391 percent in the last five years, taken high third place.
This great success is by the way CROZ’s third acknowledgement this year. First, in April CROZ has been nominated as a finalist for the prestigious IBM award "IBM Beacon Award " awarded once a year to IBM business partners worldwide for innovation and quality in applying IBM technologies and services, in the category Rational® Excellence in Software Delivery – applying Rational software development support tools. Then in June, CROZ have received the "IBM Rational Award" which is awarded to the best Rational partners for innovation in supplying software solutions and services to customers in 2007. CROZ won in the category Outstanding Rational® Requirements & Portfolio Management Solution – for its knowledge and contribution in creating specific development processes using Rational Method Composer tools.
More information about "Deloitte Technology Fast 50" competition on:
„QED“, an afterthought – Conference Dedicated to Software Quality
On 6 & 7, October the QED conference „Quality in Enterprise Development“ took place in Rovinj. The theme of the conference was quality in software development.
Quality software is a clear-cut goal of any serious software development; however there are a lot of questions, whose answers are not as clear. So, how do we achieve quality? Which dimensions of quality need to be satisfied? The goal of the QED conference was to demonstrate the quality of software development as attainable.
A presentation by Juergen Hoeller, co-founder and leading development engineer of the company SpringSource opened the conference. Spring Framework has in the last five years become indispensable part of any serious Java development, while the framework quality, of architecture the same as of the software code itself, has become legendary. QED’s audience had a chance to hear first hand how does Spring achieve its quality.
As always, the roundtables were particularly interesting as well as the presentations about practical experiences given by Croatia’s leading companies such as APIS-IT, FINA, PBZ Card, Raiffeisen Bank and T-HT. IBM experts in a rather strong American team came to Rovinj directly from „Rational Software Development“ conference where they introduced Jazz– new technological platform intended for collaborative software development - to the audience.
A hundred or so conference participants had a chance to test CROZ’s formula for conference organization – less marketing and more expertise. This formula’s efficiency was proven by exceedingly big turnout during the presentations which neither the pleasant autumn sun nor the cafés of Rovinj could dilute. Surprise of the evening was when a CROZ-men bend took over the stage proving the well-known formula: „You can't beat two guitars, bass and drums“.
CROZ in Partnership with Entrust
Company CROZ gained the status of Entrust VAR (Value Added Reseller) partner. This is the first such partnership Entrust ever made with a Croatian company.
Company Entrust is one of the leading manufacturers of security software, most renowned for its PKI infrastructure development. Entrust solutions include encryption of information, protection of digital identity and multi-layer protection of IT environment.CROZ will, combining Entrust products and its own knowledge and experience, provide its clients with a wide spectrum of security solutions.
BM Rational Software Development Conference in Croatia
IBM Rational Software Development Conference will be part of the CROZ QED conference that will take place on October 6 and 7 in Rovinj, Croatia. The conceptual RSDC roadshow unleashes business partners to give their user's top presenters tools which will introduce them to the newest Rational solutions.
Part of the QED conference will present the best content from this year's IBM Rational Software Development Conference (http://www-306.ibm.com/software/rational/events/rsdc2008/), with a special review of IBM Rational Team Concert platform and it's role in software quality assurance. RSDC will at QED host Rolf Nelson and Brian Bryson, presenting respectively on the themes of Jazz/RTC and Governing Software Quality.
Juergen Hoeller on Q.E.D.!
Juergen Hoeller, co-founder and development manager of Spring Framework is to hold the central presentation of Q.E.D. concerning the quality of software development.
Spring Framework has the reputation of being among the highest quality open source projects, with a successful company SpringSource (http://www.springsource.com/) standing behind it and Juergen as the “main contractor”.
Manner in which Spring Framework progresses, has encouraged many commercial companies, CROZ included, to elevate the level of their own progress and project approach. Juergen shall, as the keynote speaker on Q.E.D., show what were the things crucial for Spring’s success.
CROZ Announces QED Conference
If you have been reading our “factory’s newspaper” or following our news column on the Web, you can probably remember that we organized our first conference last year on the theme of project portfolio management. Pleasant atmosphere of Rovinj, excellent lecturers, knowledge exchange and of course lots of sun and salt in the air formed the main characteristics of the PPM conference. This year all of the above remains the same, the only thing changing is the theme. Therefore, it is our pleasure to invite you to the conference Quality in Enterprise Development (QED).
Software development abides in an extremely dynamic environment, under constant globalisation attacks, facing increasingly demanding business needs. So, with all these conditions lined up, the question how to incorporate quality with complex software solution development does come to mind?
The premise of the QED conference lays in the quality of software development being attainable. Whole range of interesting presentations and roundtables will ultimately result with an actual Q.E.D. [quod erat demonstrandum].
You can register for the QED conference as of now, but keep in mind that the advantages of an early registration shall apply until 20/08/2008 (catchy date, hah ;))
And yes, important announcement for all of you involved in the PPM subject matter: uneven years are still reserved for projects, portfolio, planning and resources as well as other related themes :)
See you in Rovinj !!
CROZ Won "IBM Rational Award"
June 4, 2008 – Company CROZ has won the "IBM Rational Award" intended for business partners worldwide. CROZ is the winner in the category Outstanding Rational® Requirements & Portfolio Management Solution and the only company outside the U.S. to have received this year’s award.
The "IBM Rational Award" goes to the best Rational partners for innovation in supplying software solutions and services to customers in 2007. The award is given in 4 categories, and CROZ won in the category Outstanding Rational® Requirements & Portfolio Management Solution – for its knowledge and contribution in creating specific development processes using Rational Method Composer tools.
The criteria for choosing awarded partner solutions were a list of references, number of partner certificates and usage of several IBM Rational solutions when implementing customer applications. The winners have been officially announced at the conference „Rational Software Development“, held today in Orlando, USA.
After it has, a couple of months ago, made it to the finals of the prestigious IBM Beacon Award, this time round CROZ did win the first prize between the competition of 400 entries from around the world. The award winners in other categories are companies operating in the American market, thus adding to the importance of this award for CROZ.
More information about the "IBM Rational Award" on:
CROZ’s new issue of FYI is wrapped into shades of purple, exactly as the catwalk dictates for the Spring/Summer 2008. This may be a coincidence or it may be our editors have a thing for fashion. Either way, one thing is certain! The just mentioned editors gave their best to fashionably handle the hottest IT issues in vogue this year. This issue’s topic is Requirements Management and as always we introduce the latest technological trends such as IBM Tivoli Unified Process Composer and IBM Maximo Asset Manager. Let us also mention the interview with Mr. Zoran Hrustić, IBM’s software sales director for Central Europe, Middle East, Austria and Switzerland.
This time FYI comes in the mail, so while impatiently awaiting surf our website.
CROZ Became IBM Training Provider
Zagreb, May 19, 2008 – Company CROZ became IBM Authorized Training Provider (ATP) regarding the IT field in Croatia. In line with the mentioned partnership, IBM Croatia shall implement both public and private education services and courses concerning IBM’s software and hardware products in collaboration with CROZ.
CROZ will be responsible for classroom and equipment organization and setup as well as for engagement of trainers specialized in certain fields of IT industry according to the global IBM education programs, whereas the company IBM will develop the courses, define the subjects and strategies of the courses in order to provide users with the possibility of acquiring advanced knowledge and skills about software and hardware solutions and products.
CROZ has fulfilled all necessary conditions in compliance with IBM’s standards and education rules (adequate space and equipment, governing infrastructure, qualified trainers, administration support) thus becoming the first authorized IBM education services provider in Croatia.
The courses will be held at the CROZ education centre, opened in March this year, called „Learn@CROZ“ (Zagreb, Lastovska 23), consisting of two spacious classrooms equipped according to high technical standards, a conference hall and a comfortable lounge-room.
The aim of collaboration between IBM Croatia and CROZ is directed at providing expert IBM knowledge in the field of IT with a technical support of the company CROZ. This way the users will have the opportunity to improve their IT knowledge, optimize IT abilities, increase the work efficiency and ultimately boost their business as a result.
IBM Education is the world’s leading service provider, renowned by its quality offer in the filed of IT education but also expanding to the field of business knowledge and skills regarding IT projects. They have been present in Croatia for many years now and have become an equivalent of first-rate level in professional education.
Zagreb, April 4, 2008 – Company CROZ has been nominated as a finalist for the prestigious IBM award "IBM Beacon Award" intended for business partners worldwide. CROZ is the finalist in the category Rational® Excellence in Software Delivery and the first Croatian company to have received such recognition.
"IBM Beacon Award" is awarded once a year to IBM partners from around the world for innovation and quality in applying IBM technologies and services. The award is given in several categories and CROZ has been chosen as a finalist for the category Rational® Excellence in Software Delivery – applying Rational software development support tools.
To have received such a global recognition is a huge success and honour for a Croatian company, competition being 725 entries from all over the world; particularly considering how most of the award winners are companies operating on much more developed markets. This award serves as a crown to CROZ’s years-long and quality efforts in the field of Rational tools. Beforehand, CROZ has already gained a status of VAP (Value Added Partner) and AITP (Authorized Independent Training Provider) in the field of Rational tools.
For more information about the "IBM Beacon Award" please visit:
CROZ Introduced Its New Education Centre "Learn@CROZ"
Zagreb, March 31, 2008 – Today, company CROZ has introduced its new education centre „Learn@CROZ“. As a part of the opening there was a half-day conference, where we introduced novelties in IBM’s software offer.
Education centre „Learn@CROZ“ (Lastovska 23) includes two spacious and highly equipped classrooms, a conference hall and a comfortable lounge-room. However, much more importantly than the premises is the specialist IT education offer we provide through our own courses in the fields of advanced Java architecture, project management, requirements management, business analysis as well as the courses in the field of IBM Rational tools which CROZ offers as an IBM authorised education centre (IBM Authorized Independent Training Partner). For several years now, CROZ has managed to achieve a considerable growth of its educational services; whereas at the beginning of this year we received an ISO certificate for our services regarding education. Opening of our own education centre is yet another step in increasing the quality of our educational services.
Half-day morning conference brought about three interesting presentations. And so, for the first time in Croatia, IBM Rational Jazz platform for collaborative development was shown live. Although the platform is still in the announcement phase, it managed to intrigue the entire developer’s community. Additionally, IBM DataPower devices –intended for acceleration and protection of XML message exchange, were also introduced. In line with that, CROZ used this opportunity to announce its becoming an exclusive IBM DataPower Partner for Croatia.
CNB Issued the Decision about Appropriate IT System Management
Legal act “Decision about Appropriate IT System Management” issued by the Croatian National Bank ( the Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia 80/07) entered into force on January 1, 2008.
With this Decision the banks are bind to establish business continuity planning process in order to ensure the consistency of critical and/or vital business processes.
The Croatian National Bank’s guidelines originated from European Union’s guidelines by which approximation of regulations, standards and code of practice applies to all the banks in the countries which are in the Stabilization and Accession Process. Even if we ignore the EU instruction, there still remains the fact how the business continuity planning process is an accurate way of developing and protecting one’s entire business.
Check out Courses at the New CROZ Education Centre!
It is our pleasure to announce the course syllabus which is to be taught at the new CROZ education centre!!! For April and May we have prepared the following:
Object J2EE, SERVLET and JSP Programming (use of RAD)
This course will get you closer to Java servlet and Java Server Pages technologies. It will introduce you to the servlet work model as well as to the structure and development of secure web applications. As a part of Java Server Pages technologies you will hear about the concepts of JSP model, use of JavaBeans technology and learn how to make your own tags and develop your own tag library accordingly. The course will elaborate on the theme of getting to know and use program schemes and filters as well as on the topic of installing Apache Tomcat v4.x servlet containers.
Course duration: 10 days. The course will take place from 14 to 25 April 2008.
Essentials of the Rational Unified Process V7.0
The course talks about the Rational Unified Process (RUP), a knowledge base which contains software engineering best practices well-tried on many successful development projects.
The course includes best practices, iterative development, organization and the content of the knowledge base. The students will hear about all the disciplines and roles which can appear in a development process. The course will emphasise key principles of iterative development, phases, iterations and their objectives. Special emphasis, as in the RUP itself, will be on risk and change management. Group work will be based on real life examples and commonly agreed textbook examples in accordance with the daily concerns of the students. The students will gain sufficient knowledge about the RUP development process to adequately understand the development phases and coordinate development activities.
Course duration: 2 days. The course will take place on 28 and 29 April 2008.
Introduction to Business Modeling
The course serves as an introduction to the process of business modeling. The course will get you closer to business processes and organizational structure and will instruct you about the methods and tools used to implement the change. In the course you will also learn about process modeling.
Course duration: 2 days. The course will take place on 05 and 06 May 2008.
Mastering Requirements Management with Use Cases
The course deals with the issue of requirements management with use case modeling. It focuses on defining customer requirements and requirements change management in a project; followed by problem analysis, defining the Vision and finally defining requirements with use cases. The course will also cover the sections of establishing requirements attributes, traceability links between requirements and managing the project scope. The students will practice various methods of problem analysis as well as different styles of requirements specification.
Course duration: 3 days. The course will take place from 12 to 14 May 2008.
The new Croz educational centre will run its courses will between 09.00 – 14.00h at the old address Lastovska 23.
For all additional information and registration please contact Ana Vujnović. (email:avujnovic@croz.net, phone: 01 6390-634)
New in Rational - IBM Rational Jazz
This year’s biggest novelty coming from IBM Rational is IBM Rational Jazz. Jazz is a platform of the new generation intended for collaborative development and software delivery.
IBM Rational Team Concert Express is the first product to be developed on the Jazz platform enabling high collaborative development environment, optimal for small and medium sized development teams.
Picture yourself as part of a development team which is spatially dislocated, has members who work on several projects at the same time, have different working schedules and may possibly be in different time zones. Regardless of all circumstances, they still have to collaborate among themselves. Fortunately, Jazz development platform rises to such set of challenges…
Enables collaboration in the background of software development. Jazz technology controls the artifacts and development processes and automatically creates a unique project whole. It implements its own systems:
work item ( change management: a system for tracking bugs and tasks)
source control (software version repository)
build management
Optimizes development process management and adaptation of those development processes in a reasonable timeframe. Step by step process automation, aligning work activities with notification.
Enables the choice of one’s own development environment. Jazz is an open and extensible architecture designed to offer flexibility upon selecting a development environment. It supports open source products such as Tomcat, Derby, Jabbar as well as the commercial products like WebSphere, DB2, Lotus, and Oracle.
IBM Rational Team Concert comes with the out-of-the-box integrations for ClearQuest, ClearCase and Subversion change-management product.
CROZ ISO 9001 Certified
On 22 January 2008, CROZ d.o.o became a proud owner of ISO 9001 certificate granted by the Croatian office of the Swiss certification company SGS Adriatica d.o.o. SGS performed a certification assessment of the instituted quality system at CROZ for the filed of “IT Professional Education” and confirmed how the management system is in accordance with the Standard requirements. CROZ has proved to systematically meet the agreed requirements for services in accordance with the policy scope and goals of the organization.
With this certificate we have strengthen our competitiveness in the present and the targeted markets alike.
Winter Brings New Education Courses
Subsequent to successfully completing autumn’s educational workshops, our experts are now ready for new lessons.
For this winter we have prepared the following courses:
Managing Requirements with Use Case Modelling Method: 14 – 17 January 2008 The course covers the subject of managing requirements using the Use Case modelling. The course focuses on defining customer’s requirements and project’s requirement change management, as well as on problem analysis, vision definition and defining requirements using use cases. In the course the question of establishing attributes over requirements will be discussed along with managing the links between requirements and project scope management. During the course the attendees will try out, using examples, various methods of problem analysis as well as different styles of defining requirements.
Basics of Iterative Development: 28 - 30 January 2008 The course focuses on the necessity of shifting from the traditional to an iterative approach of project management. During the course they will discuss the most common situations with which development teams and project leaders meet when developing iteratively. Moreover, in the course they will examine the actions which a project leader can take in order to improve the iterative development process.
Integral Approach to Software Development: 21 - 24 January 2008 The process of software development is a much wider term than just programming. Different seemingly unconnected disciplines and activities arranged and used in a proper way, ease the development process, help planning and ultimately affect the success of the project itself.
The workshop will explain the terms such as source code repository, issue tracker, snapshot and integration build, development, staging, test and production environment, build and test automation, as well as the links and interactions between them.
Beginner’s Java Education Set: February 2008 Object Programming and Java Programming Language– Part 1 Introduction to the basic principles of object oriented programming; writing, transformation and execution of a simple Java program; basic building elements of the Java programming language; operators and assignment; access modifiers and other modifiers; type convergences; program flow control; exceptions; classes and objects; implementation concealment; polymorphism, interfaces and abstract classes; internal classes; simultaneous execution of multiple program threads; java.lang.* package
Object Programming and Java Programming Language– Part 2 Basics of GUI application development in Java, GUI components: Layout Managers, events, Java I/O subsystem, object collections.
Object J2EE, SERVLET and JSP Programming (using RAD): Introduction to Java servlet technology, introduction to Java Server Pages technology, basic web application and HTTP protocol terminology,
Java servlet technology, Java Server Pages technology, program schemes and filters, additional topics (installation of Apache Tomcat v4.x servlet container, very brief introduction to xml)
Advanced Java Education Set: March 2008 Advanced Concepts of Java Programming
Dependency injection (DI)
Inversion of control (IoC)
Aspect oriented programming (AOP)
Advanced concepts of Web Java
Spring MVC
Spring portlet MVC
Advanced Java Programming
Advanced JDBC
Declarative transaction management
JMS
O/R mapping
Scheduling
Unit testing
Security
Logging and Auditing
You can find more details about our courses in our catalogue. For all additional information and registration please contact Ana Vujnović (e-mail: avujnovic/croz.net, phone: 01 6184-831)
FYI by CROZ: The Holiday Issue
Christmas is coming and with it the third edition of our magazine FYI by CROZ.
This issue’s topic is project management; we bring you a short overview of the trends in project and portfolio management. You can find a very interesting story about the first PPM conference in Rovinj. It was a great privilege to be able to enrich our topic by an interview with a golden project manager, well reputed Croatian water-polo coach Ratko Rudić.
PBZ has launched an innovative and quality Internet service „PBZInvestor“! You can read how did this service of Privredna banka Zagreb came about, in the interview with Vladimir Ilić, development manager of the application in mention.
And did you know how CROZ regularly holds courses and workshops as well as provides education services and knowledge transfer? You can find more on education in the IT industry and our experience with the same in this issue of our magazine.
As usual, we bring you interesting tools and technologies; Rational Data Architect, Filenet, DataPower and Tivoli tools for monitoring composite applications.
Hold your horses! New FYI is coming!
Breakfast with ITIL, Lotus Notes and dangerous hackers
Zagreb, 29 November 2007 - "Breakfast with IT Service Integrations" was held at the "Regent Esplanade" hotel in the organization of the company CROZ. Issues discussed included managing IT services, news from the world of Lotus and IT system security.
Although managing IT services and especially ITIL has been the subject of many lectures lately, CROZ team managed to attract the audience’s attention by its pragmatic approach, with particularly convincing and interesting lecture of Marin Tice from Zagreb Airport who talked about his experience of implementing a service desk.
IBM Lotus Notes is the world’s leading groupware technology and is just coming of age these days. The novelties of version 8 and ways to achieve a mobile office by using this new technology were revealed to us in the second part of the breakfast.
The last topic was at the same time the most impressive one. Security and vulnerability of IT systems have been very distinctly demonstrated on a couple of examples which left the audience speechless. The lecturer had illustrated, by his actions and person, just how a malicious hacker can rather effortlessly and with no sophisticated equipment gravely endanger an IT system. How to protect oneself? – Only by a serious and elaborate security policy which needs to be enforced day after day.
Interface21 to Be Renamed into SpringSource
Interface21, the company behind the omnipresent Spring Framework, is to be renamed into SpringSource! Web page www.interface21.com has already been redirected to www.springsource.com. The reasons behind the change are quite logical: connect the global success of Spring Framework with the company’s name. With Spring 2.5 in the works along with a whole range of supplementary products, a rather aggressive marketing campaign can be expected. You never know, there may be a wealthy buyer in store. With this kind of knowledge and reputation in hand, SpringSource is undoubtedly a desirable bachelorette company. For more details and reasons behind the change go to the blog of Rod Johnson, Spring’s original creator.
CROZ- Premium level member of the Adobe Solution Partner Program
In the last six months, we have intensely evaluated the Adobe Flex technology on actual projects and we can say our experts are more than pleased. Deployment of Adobe Flex technology accelerates software development and by doing so significantly lowers the costs of developing a software application’s presentation layer. But what’s much more important is that customers are getting a much richer interface. As of this time on, CROZ is, now “publicly” as well, offering the services of software development based on Adobe Flex technology. Our high-quality services and CROZ’s position as a leader in the customised software solution development in Croatia both made it easier for Adobe to recognize his Services Solution Partner in us.
We continue to prove to our customers how technically complex systems processing huge amounts of data and transactions each day, can be implemented through elegant and intuitive solutions using modern technologies.
Gartner: IBM WebSphere Portal in the Magical Quadrant
According to Gartner’s study, IBM WebSphere portal is the leading portal implementation on the market. As its strengths they stress a large customer base, integration with Lotus and Lotus Expeditor and as particularly interesting the accelerator principle. Details needed to be touched up are, amongst others, the simplicity of installation – as if we didn’t know this already.
IBM Content Accelerator – Latest Improvement for IBM WebSphere Portal!
IBM has launched a new accelerator for its portal platform. IBM Content Accelerator brings simplified but none the less powerful features of on-line creation and web content management to business users. It helps improve the productivity and enables organizations to keep huge amounts of web content fresh (up-to-date) and easy to find and search through.
WebSphere PortalAccelerators facilitate growth of the portal’s business value and provide a faster time-to-value while focusing on the project’s specific needs. Those are integrated packages of functionalities that can easily be added to WebSphere Portal Server and can help to significantly reduce the time needed for implementation. " IBM Content Accelerator" includes the following functionalities:
• Workplace Web Content Management - enables web content management and content distribution on several different websites and also include WYSIWYG, a rich text editor.
• Portal Document Manager – enables users to create and edit various types of documents (presentations, text and table calculations) directly through the web browser as well as manage documents through a shared user-defined hierarchy of maps.
• OmniFind Enterprise Edition – enables quality and scalable search of web content as well as advanced features of security settings configuration, thus contributing to the increase of the corporate information value.
The First Croatian PMI Conference
The first CROZ PPM Conference has barely finished, and more than successfully we may add, <link to the previous news/> and already we received an announcement about Croatia’s branch of the leading membership association for project management profession - Project Management Institute (PMI), Project Management Association, PMI chapter Zagreb, Croatia organizing The First PMI Conference on 6 November 2007 in Zagreb metaphorically entitled “Let’s Set Sail”. We are looking forward to hearing the lectures of some of the most eminent international and national project managers such as Peter de Jager, Jim De Piante, Ratko Rudić, Dino Butorac and Berislav Crkvenac as well as to exchange the experience with numerous (more than 300 is expected) colleagues from other countries and companies. Judging by the organizers it is safe to expect a conference of the highest calibre. More about the conference and registration on PMI Hrvatska .
1. PPM Adriatic Conference – Two Days of Sun, Merriment and Knowledge Exchange
The first two October days, apart by beautiful and sunny weather, were marked by CROZ’s first conference on the theme of portfolio project management. It is difficult to single out the most interesting events or to describe the atmosphere in just a couple of sentences.
But let us start with the most important – people. First of all, interesting and experienced lecturers coming from organizations with profuse project portfolios, then roundtable participants and finally the audience which never once hesitated to have their say in the interesting and vigorous discussions. Sure enough there was ample of fun at hand. The Red Island, looking like something out of a fairytale, was the host of a most pleasant dinner with the salty tang of the sea and the sound of klapa singing in the background.
Besides socializing and having fun, we have, hopefully, provided those present with a training ground for learning and experience exchange. And in conclusion, what’s there to say except… looking forward to our next get-together!
Download presentations from the 1st PPM Adriatic Conference.
Impact Comes to You! - WebSphere Breakfast by CROZ
On the day of 14th September 2007, CROZ has continued with the tradition of holding business breakfasts in collaboration with IBM. Themes of this September’s breakfast were IBM WebSphere and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), within IBM’s global initiative “Impact Comes to You”.
This event, in the opinion of the majority present, gave an excellent overview of best practices in establishing SOA infrastructure and relevant WebSphere technologies. What the audience found particularly interesting was the practical experience from SOA projects which are growing in number in our country as well, while CROZ and IBM, we dare say; pave the way in the implementation of the same.
Opening presentations were made by Mr Hrvoje Živko, Coverage Software Sales Representative, IBM Croatia, and Mr Krešimir Mudrovčić, executive director of CROZ. Probably the longest breakfast to date began with the opening presentation of CROZ member Davor Čengija about SOA implementation and possible traps in the process thereof, and was followed up by, another CROZ member, Tomislav Jukić concerning the subject of service development management.
These two rather abstract topics were followed by three presentations about IBM products, which could help in realization of a business process vision in the SOA world. First there was the presentation about using IBM WebSphere Monitor, which instead of the said Mr Michal Duseka, was held by Mr Vjenceslav Nadinić (IBM). Presentations of our colleagues from CROZ ensued: Ivica Lončar about WebSphere MQ Broker and the demonstration of managing SOA services throughout the entire lifecycle by Krešimir Musa. The breakfast prolonged into the afternoon due to Dejan Novak’s workshop during which a demo of car registration business process was shown as was the functionality of the tools IBM WebSphere Integration Developer and IBM WebSphere Process Server.
Alongside the presentations and comments of CROZ and IBM experts about their experience in projects based on the SOA principles, the breakfast was also featured by an overview of IBM tools:
Due to the lack of safety web applications can become an easy target for stealing of personal or corporation data. Early performance of safety tests is the best way of achieving the desired application safety as well as its defence against unwanted intrusions into the system. Watchfire is one in the series of companies taken over by IBM. Its particularity lies precisely in its dealings with safety tests.
We bring you a short overview of ex-Watchfire products.
IBM Rational AppScan is a tool intended for automation of safety tests on web applications and it increases the safety as well as the resilience of web applications. AppScan enables nearly all necessary safety tests on web applications. It is equally intended, through various product versions, for individual users as for the larger organizations which demand a larger number of simultaneously initiated safety tests. AppScan is designed for various types of users from developers, test teams to project managers.
During individual user deployment it provides the desktop version of the tool as well as the plug-ins for all major development environments such as JBuilder, WebSphere, Microsoft® Visual Studio.Net and Eclipse.
IBM Rational AppScan Enterprise is a web-based system for an effective and distributed implementation of safety tests, intended for implementation of a larger number of tests initiated by a number of different users. With a possibility of a more advanced analysis web application brings a system for the creation of reports about test results, references for the solution of the problems detected and the simple integration with the AppScan desktop version.
AppScan Enterprise — IBM Rational ClearQuest Integration AppScan provides a number of extensions for improvement and facilitation of the work in the process of Quality Assurance. AppScan gives user the freedom in choosing which analysed problems he/she wants to report to ClearQuest. AppScan Enterprise and IBM Rational ClearQuest integration enables automated log-in, entering and tracking of requests through ClearQuest.
AppScan QA—IBM Rational TestManager Integration Integration enables a straightforward interface for initiating and analysis of safety tests based on the integration of AppScan Enterprise and ClearQuest. This provides for the abstract environment in which the users through IBM Rational TestManager can initiate and analyse safety tests on web applications without the knowledge and experience about the safety tests themselves.
Rational Asset Manager
Reuse is a term that had been wriggling through the IT industry for many years now. In various ways, organizations tend to catalogue and store all the artefacts liable to reuse. Methods of catalogue production go from artefact lists in Excel all the way to the custom development solutions made particularly for that purpose.
Rational Asset Manager (RAM) is the youngest member of the Rational products family. The product is intended for identification, creation, management, search and reuse of all development assets of the organization. Through this tool it is possible to organize applications, models, components, patterns, services, frameworks, templates, documents and all other assets the organization could profit from, should they be reused.
All assets are organized and catalogued according to the Reusable Asset Specification , an OMG standard for describing reusable software assets.
A large part of Rational Asset Manager is dedicated and intended for working with services and SOA. All services identified as suitable for reuse can be governed inside the RAM repository. Rational Asset Manager is closely integrated with IBM WebSphere Service Registry and Repository tool. It is possible to search already published services from WSSR through RAM and, vice versa, the services catalogued in RAM by means of a wizard publish in WSSR, as well as to see in any given time their interrelations.
With enormous possibilities of organization and safety assurance of all assets in the repository, great care was given to the integration with other products of the IBM Rational family as well. The tool itself can be used as a web client or as a plug-in for Eclipse platform used by all of the IBM Rational development tools. In addition, there is the integration with ClearQuest and ClearCase by means of which it is possible to version every asset as well as to set arbitrary lifecycle of the same, from its infiltration into the repository through approval and all the way to its deployment and creation of new versions.
CROZ Evaluates New Lotus Products
IBM has recently launched a full version of a new tool coming from the IBM Lotus family, IBM Lotus Notes 8.0. With this version IBM has made great progress in the development of its office tools.
Novelties can immediately be spotted on the main interface which is intuitive and user-friendly enough for users who meet up with this tool for the first time, while on the other hand provides the users who have been working with previous versions with a smooth cross over to the new interface.
The novelty regarding the application, itself, being in that it is no longer based on C/C++, but on the Eclipse platform instead.
With an updated build-in Sidebar, the user can access all the add-ins contained in the program package, plus all other possible add-ins as well.
IBM Productivity Tools are editorial tools based on the Open Office tools used for word processing, drafting presentations and spreadsheet calculator. This enables the user to take care of most of his/hers business inside the IBM Lotus Notes environment and all at one place.
Client’s email interface has been refreshed as well, with a modern appearance and hover-over display of toolbar functions for an easier use. Changes have been made on the Calendar and the Contact list, which provide the users with an easier use and input of new data as well as better coordination of certain tasks and contacts entered.
Therefore, with a facilitated possibility of developing, upgrading and adjusting of this tool, IBM has validated Lotus Notes to be an ideal tool for coordination, planning and interrelation inside a business environment, which with its advanced abilities of customization stands for one of the top products in the field.
IBM has published a new version of Lotus Expeditor (6.1.1) platform on 14th August. Expeditor is a platform for application development with a rich (“fat”) client based on the platform Eclipse RCP, and currently on its version 3.2. Crucial addition Expeditor brings to the basic RCP is the support to the client development which can work even if its offline. It is achieved via local database which cashes in the data from the main database.
WebSphere Grows Faster and Faster
"The Big Blue" has significantly increased its revenues for this year with its software sales and the most impressive of all being the sales growth of WebSphere line of products. In the second quarter of this year IBM has increased its revenues by 13% with software sales and mostly thanks to the growth of WebSphere of as much as 28%. Additionally, other IBM products have recorded an increase as well: Lotus software of 12 %, Rational software of 11 %, Tivoli software of 33% and Information Management software of 21%.
Growth is the result of a strategy based on the open source products with the open source in mention progressively becoming a part of the IBM business software foundation. In less demanding situations the companies use WebSphere Application Server Community Edition, but in more demanding ones they can reach they goals more quickly and with less effort by using “tougher” WebSphere Application Server products which go beyond the abilities of open source software. It is precisely this strategy of IBM inline with maximal adaptation to customer needs that proved to work extremely well for WebSphere, as well as for IBM software in general all of which was substantiated during the last four years with numerous reports made by IBM, IDC and Gartner.
Autumn Brings New Courses
The same as any other “school” CROZ is also preparing its educational activities for the upcoming fall. We use this opportunity to single out couple of workshops prepared by our experts which will take place after summer at our location.
11-13 September: Integral Approach to Software Development
Software development process is by far a wider concept than just programming. Diverse and apparently unconnected disciplines and activities arranged and used in the right way, facilitate the development process, assist in planning and in the end affect the successful outcome of the project itself.
The workshop will provide the explanations for the concepts such as source code repository, issue tracker, snapshot and integration build, developmental, staging, test and production environment, build and test automation, as well as for the connections and interactions between them.
18-21 September: Project management basics
Course is created for Project managers. Objective is to enable project managers to efficiently handle communication, schedule, budget and many other important matters. Besides theoretical knowledge about structure of project, project documents and project management process, course covers many issues like conflict or meeting management.
26-27 September: IBM WebSphere Application Server Administration
IBM WebSphere Application Server V6 administrator course is designed for administrators who will upon completion of the course be able to install, configure and service the IBM application server by themselves. At the beginning of the course the attendants will be acquainted with the application server architecture as to the WebSphere artefacts. During the course the users will install WebSphere Application Server and IBM HTTP Server themselves. With the administration console the attendants will learn how to define a data source, configure and install applications by using a graphical interface or a command line (wasadmin), as well as learn how to solve problems in WAS environment.
2-3 October: Introduction to Business modeling
business process definition
business processes and organization structure
methodologies and tools for change implementation
BPM: project approach
process modeling
9-11 October: Advanced concepts of Java programming
dependency injection
dependency injection (DI)
inversion of control (IoC)
aspect oriented programming (AOP)
16-18 October: Advanced concepts of web Java
spring MVC
spring portlet MVC
22-26 October: Advanced Java programming
Advanced JDBC
Declarative transaction management
JMS
O/R mapping
Scheduling
Unit testing
Security
Logging and Auditing
5-7 November: Spring Web Flow
Spring Web Flow is application framework for developing complex interactive web pages.
Please send your applications at kbrnic@croz.net . Contact number: +385 1 6184-831.
Don’t Miss : 1st PPM Adriatic Conference
Topics related to portfolio project management are in vogue all across the globe, however the approach to high quality level of information and know how of the related filed is not always simple. Therefore we organized 1st Project & Portfolio Management Adriatic Conference. The aim of the conference is to analyse all portfolio project management segments. By gathering the experts in Project & Portfolio Management as well as those who deal with resource availability on a daily basis we wish to create a unique environment in which people can exchange their ideas and experiences.
P.S. Keep in mind to take the advantages of an early registration!
IBM WebSphere Portal is the Leader in the Enterprise Portal Market
On 20 July 2007, IBM has published the results of an IDC study concerning the position of advanced portal products which are to make their mark on the market in the next couple of years. The results of the study place IBM WebSphere Portal at the top with a market of 31.5%, whereas the rival BEA Systems took 19.6% and Oracle 10.5% of the world’s portal market “weighting” $901 million in the year 2006.
IBM WebSphere Portal product allows users to themselves create the dynamic content as well as to personally version it onto the company’s portal. Thanks to the possibility of connection to other products, IBM is successfully selling the portal in which the emphasis is put on collaboration, social networking technologies and semantic tagging. IBM is quite aggressively adding new functionalities in WebSphere Portal so as to improve the software usability. With Web 2.0 and SOA technologies IBM continues to create a flexible, employable, collaborative and above all reliable software. IDC predicts how enterprise portal market will grow for more than 50% until 2011 and will reach the worth of more than $1.4 billion.
CROZ In The Top 10 IT Educational Centres
According to the study of Privredni Vjesnik, published on 16 July 2007, CROZ found its rightful place on the list of leading educational IT centres. This achievement is particularly interesting due to the fact of CROZ dealing exclusively with a specialized form of education mostly connected with software development.
Courses and workshops held on regular basis can be found in our course catalog. Courses are primarily divided in two categories: courses we made ourselves and IBM courses which we only can hold as the sole authorised Rational AITP centre in Croatia.
Leading Open Source Development Platform Available In a New Version
Eclipse Foundation has recently published a new version of its development platform, by the name of Eclipse Europe, and is a shared edition of as many as 21 projects. Alongside its standard projects such as development environment, of which Eclipse is the most famous for, there are also tools for report generation (BIRT), web application production (WTP), support for SOA development (STP) and 17 other. Since IBM with Version 7 of its Rational tools is quite apt in tracking the Eclipse development process, we can expect an upgrade of Rational Software Architect and Rational Application Developer any time soon.
SOA Is "Ripe" In the State Of Denmark
Yet another example of SOA being successfully implemented in the development of information infrastructure comes from Denmark. Their national IT and telecommunication agency is leading a project which will enable a straightforward and effective exchange of electronic documents.
They decided on a small set of services required by a large number of users. With the necessary political support, collaboration of economy subjects and the support of big IT companies they embarked on the development of an exchange system for an extremely large number of electronic documents. The system was built according to the rules of service oriented architecture, while the number of services will continue to grow in time.
At the present time the safe delivery of e-invoices is ensured, because the economy (big and small alike) demonstrated highest amount of interest for the service. We are talking about some 15 million e-invoices per year which can in turn annually save the economy more than € 450 million with regards to traditional invoicing.
Besides the means by which the country can, in a brilliant way, invest the tax payers’ money, this project is also an example of how to benefit from the positive SOA characteristics such as flexibility, scalability and manifold usability. You can read more on the subject of SOA here or in the electronic issues of the magazine FYI by CROZ.
The First Regional Conference On Project And Portfolio Management In Croatia
We have good news for you who are on a daily basis juggling with a resource overload or are evaluating the project schemes with an ungrateful task of determining the ones that will live to see production day. With the beginning of October, more precisely on 1st and 2nd of October, we are organizing a conference of a regional character near Rovinj, named:
Long standing tradition of CROZ in early technology breakthrough and studying of new concepts and tools continues. We have already participated in IBM beta programs on several occasions, aspiring to aptly welcome new solutions. At the moment, we are actively evaluating and assessing IBM Tivoli Monitoring 6.2 and IBM Rational Portfolio Manager 7.1.
Rational Portfolio Manager portrays an entirely new face in this version. RPM users will most certainly be glad to learn about the new web client, followed with an option of in-line editing and especially about the upgrade of integration with ClearQuest and RequisitePro. More information on Rational Portfolio Manager can be found in the first issue of FYI by CROZ.
IBM Tivoli Monitoring 6.2 set of products presents a step further in relation to the display of events and advanced possibilities of correlation and integration of events from different sources with regard to the current IBM Tivoli Monitoring 6.1. The enhancements brought about in this version facilitate the migration from earlier versions of IBM Tivoli Monitoring to the new ITM 6.2 version.
For more information about Tivoli Technologies go to our website’s specially designated place of the same.
Spring Look of FYI by CROZ
If you liked the first issue of our " ForYourInformation by CROZ", you'll be probably happy to learn how the new edition is already on half its way to you. In this new, blue edition of FYI we bring you lots of interesting articles, all of which can be seen in a pdf format on our download zone. And yes, a small but important note: feel free to inform us about whether you too would like to receive the FYI at your work address.
CROZ on IBM SW Days
This year’s already habitual IBM Software days will be held on 5 and 6 of June in Zagreb. As a part of the second day on the Solution Track, you can watch a presentation by Krešimir Musa (CROZ) and Vedrana Miholić (CROZ) by the name A Road to SOA.
If a manager or a team member of the development company could catch a gold fish, he/she would probably wish for… a quicker and cheaper development, easier integration and better adaptability to market needs. So it is of little wonder how from one year to the next new concepts and technologies are striving to solve afore mentioned issues. Topical interest today is the Holy Grail – SOA, but in order to achieve the implementation of this contemporary concept, some important conditions have to be met as well: solid foundations in both the technology and the development process, high-quality technology which can support SOA concepts, high level of expert knowledge and naturally an abundance of good will in the team itself. In this lecture they will try to show which are the Rational concepts and solutions that can achieve the preconditions of a swift SOA implementation and how to cope in the world of ''R** abbreviation'' (RUP, RMC, RPM ...). In the second part of this lecture they will show how IBM WebSphere artefacts do indeed meet the conditions of ''Ready for SOA'' platform.
For more details about the conference and registration go to the IBM pages.
CROZ a game with no limit
For quite a while now, we have openly demonstrated how we whish to expand our knowledge and experience across the whole region. In the past few moths our wishes started to come true. Although we made our first steps outside Croatia with our consulting and educational undertakings, our development projects assured quite an impressive continuation. Thanks to an excellent collaboration with our two key customers, our solutions have been positioned across the region.
By gaining the status of AITP for IBM Rational courses, we have secured us the position of a sole such centre in our region. On such solid foundations, this year we have continued our work in Serbia and Romania, and we have established partnership relations in Bulgaria and Poland. Our expertise and experience in implementation of Rational Portfolio Manager gave us the opportunity to show our abilities on conferences in the EU (London and Vienna), and to take part in a tendering in Norway.
However, the essence of our business operation still lays in the software development, and we are exceptionally pleased that we are expanding our services to Europe in this field in collaboration with our customers.
Our retail loan workflow solution found its way to EU banks via Volksbank Croatia. Volksbank International AG together with its daughter banks operating in Croatia and 6 other mid and eastern European countries as well (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia) embraced this solution as a choice for the Group. The project also includes the integration with existing systems in each of the banks so in that respect CROZ is collaborating with the world’s as well as the local manufacturers of the banking software such as MISYS (UK), S1 (USA), ApPello (Hungary).
Company PBZ Card d.o.o. is a part of the PBZ Group and is the sole credit card company in Croatia responsible for issuing and receipt of American Express cards, and at the same time provides the service of receipt as well as the sales network architecture for MasterCard and Visa cards. CROZ has build an online system for PBZ Card enabling the supervision of expenses made by credit cards and the functionality of an electronic bill for the users of American Express cards, as well as the insight into the business account and financial reports of the companies receiving American Express credit cards. The quality of the system was recognized by the banks in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina so they purchased that system from PBZ Card and the company CROZ was recognized as a lasting and valuable partner, performing all actions related to customization and maintenance of this multi-institutional credit card online system.
Hannover - Lotus is not dead
IBM has introduced the first public beta version of its Lotus Notes and Domino 8 (Hanover) software for e-mail management and inner-team collaboration.
Built on an IBM variant of Eclipse Rich Client platform, the new Lotus Notes offer more flexibility and substantially facilitate administration business. Basic functions of the package such as e-mail, calendar and contacts, have gained many enhancements: re-designed user interface, advanced search and sort options, more intuitive calendar usage and so on.
Another novelty is the support for the so-called composite applications: new “Notes” offer the possibility of connecting the old Lotus Notes applications with the components based on the Eclipse platform. Supplementary office tools have also been included into the package under a common name of Productivity Tools: Lotus Documents (text processing), Lotus Spreadsheets (spreadsheet calculator) and Lotus Presentations (presentation production).
For more information about the product go to the IBM pages.
We too have a fighter for the ''game''
Maybe you thought how CROZ only employs puny looking computer guys; but one look at our Dejan Cepetić will definitely change your mind. Long term exposure to the green monitor radiation (3270, author’s remark) made Cep strong to the extent of him bravely tearing of his opponents – using his skills acquired during his boxing career, and all that in the first division of at the moment the only American football team in Croatia - Zagreb Thunders!
But now at a serious note, we kindly suggest that you visit the web site of that unique team and the first chance you get watch some of the games which will be held on the home field.
CROZ at a new location
Dear customers and partners, it our pleasure to announce that from 1 April 2007 (not an April’s fool joke!) we will be conducting our business at the new address in Lastovska 23, on the floors 3, 4 and 5. To some of you we will be physically more far-off, to others nearer, but we remain equally devoted to all our customers. We will be working in a renovated and contemporary equipped premises, solving the non-equation of people vs. square meters figures, while amending the work conditions to our future plans. All other contact information (telephone numbers, fax and e-mail), besides the address, remain the same.
For Your Information by CROZ - yesterday, today, tomorrow
We are hoping how you managed to at least skim through the first issue of our newsletter during December. For all of you who did not receive the FYI’s paper release, we arranged for the possibility of pdf-version download.
The new FYI is in the “polishing” phase, and will be on your desk sometime during May.
