Scaling Engineering Organizations for Success with Gjorgji Gjeorgjievski
We all know that tech makes the world go round, and that good ideas and tech are financed like there’s no tomorrow – but what happens after? How do they keep growing? In this Re:Imagine session, we had Gjorgji Gjeorgjievski – Director of Engineering of Snowflake – the company that in 2020 had the biggest software IPO ever! The massive growth was fueled by the enormous in novation done by Snowflake’s ever-expanding engineering team. It grew by 50-60% per year, an unprecedented growth for a software company of that magnitude.
On the Re:Imagine Session held on Gjorgji talked about the journey of scaling a small engineering team into a large organization, and all the challenges and fun parts that come with it – including his advice worth it’s weight in gold for all aspiring tech leaders!
Watch the video below for the full session!
Social Housing Technology Benefits
Articles
John Abadom
General Manager at IT Labs LTD
Housing Associations and Technology: Why the Two are a Good Pair
Housing associations and local authorities have a crucial role in ensuring that people have access to affordable and secure housing. They must balance the need to provide quality housing with the need to operate efficiently and effectively. Technology can be a powerful tool for improving business processes, reducing costs, and enhancing the services that housing associations provide to their tenants. In this article, we will explore how housing associations can improve business processes through technology.
Digital Communication and Collaboration
One of the most significant ways technology can improve business processes is by enabling better communication and collaboration. Housing associations can use technology to create a digital platform where tenants can report issues, request repairs, and communicate with the association. This is especially important as the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) stated in September 2022 that registered social housing providers must collect and share information on repairs, safety checks, and complaints with residents. By having a digital platform, associations can streamline communication, reduce response times, and track progress. It will reduce the need for face-to-face interactions, saving time and resources, an. An example is Plus Dane Housing launching its new customer portal this month.
Cloud-based Systems
Cloud-based systems can be used to manage housing association data, allowing for efficient data sharing and storage. A good example was Clarion Housing Group’s digital transformation accelerated by Hitachi Solutions a few years ago. By using cloud-based systems, housing associations can access information from anywhere at any time, making it easier to manage and share information across different departments. This can help improve decision-making, reduce response times, and improve overall efficiency.
Automated Systems
Automated systems can be used to streamline repetitive tasks and reduce human error. For example, housing associations can use automated systems to manage rent collection and track maintenance schedules and repair requests. This can reduce the time and resources required for administrative tasks, freeing up staff to focus on more complex tasks. Poplar HARCA is an excellent example of a housing association that successfully automated its accounts payable process.
Data Analytics
Data analytics can be used to provide housing associations with valuable insights into tenant needs and preferences. By analysing data on tenant preferences, housing associations can make informed decisions about the services they offer and the types of housing they provide. This can help improve tenant satisfaction and reduce tenant turnover. Back in 2014, Gary Hind, Head of IT at Bernicia Group, led his housing association into introducing a new housing management business intelligence solution that enabled them to monitor performance and risk better plus respond to other matters more speedily.
Mobile Apps
Mobile apps can be used to improve communication and provide tenants with access to services. Housing associations can develop mobile apps that allow tenants to request repairs, report issues, and access information about their tenancy. This can help improve tenant satisfaction and reduce response times. Stirling Council rolled out and installed 50,000 sensors into 6,000 properties. Data from the sensors is fed into a mobile app called HomeLINK which immediately alerts residents of any issues in their property i.e., if the temperature is too hot, cold, or humid.
Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things (IoT) can be used to provide housing associations with real-time data on tenant needs and preferences. IoT devices, such as sensors and smart meters, can monitor energy usage, water consumption, and other aspects of daily life in housing units. This can help housing associations identify and address issues proactively, reducing the need for reactive maintenance. Back in November 2022 Onward Homes, Places for People, Raving Housing Trust, RHP Group, and Thorngate Churcher Trust were all finalists at the Inside Housing Innovation Week Award which recognises a social housing organisation that uses technology and the Internet of Things to improve lives, solve problems and deliver real genuine benefits to communities.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality can be used to provide tenants with virtual tours of housing units, allowing them to explore properties before deciding to rent or buy. This can help housing associations save time and resources by reducing the need for in-person viewings. Virtual reality can also be used to train staff, allowing them to practice different scenarios in a safe and controlled environment. Kingdom Housing was one of the first housing associations to use virtual reality – you can read more here: https://www.kingdomhousing.org.uk/blog/kingdom-uses-augmented-reality-technology/ which features Gary Haldane, Interim Digital Director at Kingdom Housing Association.
Blockchain
Blockchain technology can be used to provide secure and transparent record-keeping for housing associations. By using blockchain, housing associations can ensure that all transactions are recorded and can be audited. This can help improve transparency and reduce the risk of fraud. Together Housing Association partnered with UrbanChain to reduce households’ carbon footprints and energy bills. The pioneering scheme enabled UrbanChain to onboard 500 Together Housing Association homes into its P2P exchange, enabling buyers and sellers of green energy to transact in a secure and safe environment with complete transparency.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used to automate tasks and provide housing associations with valuable insights. For example, AI can analyse tenant data, identify patterns, and provide recommendations for improving services. AI can also be used to develop chatbots that can assist tenants with routine tasks, such as reporting issues or requesting information. Peabody, London Borough of Camden, Community Housing, and Cobalt use machine learning to help maximize rent collection, identify tenants needing support, and transform productivity. This enables social landlords to manage rent arrears more efficiently.
To Sum Up
It is essential to recognize that technology in the social housing space enables better digital communication and collaboration and creates environments for better data sharing and process automation, especially for residents and staff. Mobile Apps and IoT provide greater visibility to residents, and social housing landlords, in having real-time asset data access to better manage property dampness and mould, disrepair, energy bills, well-being, and much more. Virtual reality, Metaverse, mixed reality, and virtual world technologies offer a greater variation on how social housing landlords can expand their use of internet technology to provide residents and staff with environments where they can interact with computer-generated content and other users. Microsoft’s vision of the Metaverse can be explored in these two concise videos:
- https://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1455624165201887234
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd2GK0qDtRg
AI enables social housing landlords to get closer to tenants by offering services and understanding behaviours, demographics, and needs. Also, using automation can be beneficial for analysing customer feedback, as Flagship Housing introduced this approach across its operation. But all this hinges on having accurate data as a foundation for AI or predictive analytics projects.
Blockchain can drive affordable housing by enabling social housing interactions and transactions through trusted intermediaries to be automated through technology. Blockchain can enable easier property search, improve pre-purchase due diligence, reduce the needs for intermediaries, provide smart property contracts, offer safe property transactions, reduce entrance into home ownership and turn social housing stock into a liquid asset.
Technology can provide housing associations with tools to improve business processes, reduce costs, and enhance services. By embracing technology, housing associations can become more efficient, effective, and responsive to tenant needs.
Author
John Abadom – General Manager at IT Labs LTD
Re:Imagine Session - ‘How do Recruiters find the Best Candidate for the Job?
How do Recruiters find the Best Candidate for the Job?
Elena Dvorchanec
Talent Acquisition Specialist
Many of us have been through interviews and have seen the entire process by being part of it, but is the recruitment process the same on both sides of the fence? Is it the same for interviewee and the interviewer? How does the process look like for the recruiters? I answered all these questions and many more, as part of the Re:Imagine Session I held at the Faculty of Philosophy – Skopje.
The point of the session was for aspiring recruiters and people who will jump into the labor market to better understand what’s happening on both sides of the fence, as a way for both applicants and recruiters to find the job/candidate they want.
The Five Phases of The Selection Process
The whole recruitment process, or better said, the work of a recruiter includes networking, screening, interviews, presenting the company, preparing, connecting applicants and candidates with managers and technical personnel – just a myriad of tasks and responsibilities, all important for the recruitment process, and crucial for finding the right candidate for a position.
But better yet – we can divide this process in five phases:
- Preparing
- Sourcing
- Interview
- Selection
- Hired
Each of the five phases is self-explanatory, and the hiring process seems like a straightforward job – you match people with criteria, education, and skills and find the right one – right?!
Well, the reality is much more complicated than that – as a variety of factors can influence the process and set us back a few steps, which can take a bit more time than initially expected.
Let’s dive in the five phases, and the potential issues that can come up.
Preparing
The first phase of the recruitment process is the most important, as it sets the pace for all the following phases. When a request to fill up a position comes in, the first step is to create a job ad, which will include all the information about the position: requirements, qualifications, benefits, description of responsibilities – basically all the information a job seeker would need in order to decide if they’re a fit for it.
After creating the job ad, a strategy is developed to decide which channels and methods would be best to run the job ad. Social media? A newspaper ad? Maybe TV?
In this phase, the two steps described above can go smoothly only if the recruiter clearly understands what the “ideal candidate” looks like. This means they must acquaint themselves with the position, the requirements, the terminology, the industry – these are all time-consuming but crucial if we want to find the best candidate.
I’ve got just the example of how this can sometimes be difficult:
A while ago, while working for another company I got a request from management to look for a someone to lead the financial department. First, up until that point, I was a recruiter whose experience was all around people who work in tech – developers, QAs, BAs, project managers – and industrial workers. I had zero experience recruiting someone from finance, let alone understand the skills and qualifications a person should have to lead a financial department.
So, me and other colleagues from my team started from scratch – I contacted some of the people in the financial department, talked with them in length to get a better picture and better visualize the person that would need to carry out the responsibilities would come with the position. After knowing all about the position, we set about publishing the job ad – and the first thing we did was decide that we won’t use traditional ways and just publish that we have an open position and wait for applicants. Instead, we used LinkedIn and searched for the candidate – meaning we shortened our search by ensuring that we would target the people with the niche qualities and skills we were looking for – and avoid a pile of potentially underqualified applicants.
Understanding the position, the responsibilities that come with it, will help you immensely in figuring out what characteristics the perfect candidate for the position will have, and how to find them. It’s not the same to look for C-level executives and juniors – they spend their time on different social media platforms, their online habits differ, and different types of benefits and opportunities appeal to them.
Sourcing
Once we know the profile and the characteristics, we want our ideal candidate to have, we set about with sourcing. We’re looking through existing profiles and candidates, but also new ones, and we set about seeing how they applied – are they referrals? LinkedIn? Are they a candidate that has already applied previously for a similar position? These are all important because of the following:
- Referrals – candidates that have joined companies through a friend or an acquaintance tend to stay longer at companies than candidates who have joined companies through direct contact from recruiters or have applied by themselves – making this one of the best ways to recruit. Of course, it’s important to reward the employee while doing this, and ensure that their efforts are appreciated.
- LinkedIn and/or other online platforms – the platforms and the profiles of the people who apply are important, as you can see their network and see who they associate with, gauge their interest and engagement with important players from the industry – these metrics can help you in understanding the candidate before an interview.
- Job Fairs – not only do you get the chance to present your company, but you can also see how your employer branding strategy is performing based on the kind of people interested in your company and see if your efforts are in the right place. Furthermore, you can consider this an interview before the interview – you can talk to those who show interest and see what they’re looking for and spread your network!
The Interview
Okay, so once we have our “ideal candidate” profile, and we’ve gathered a sizeable number of applications (or not), it’s time to get down to the interview!
Many things have changed about recruitment in recent years – for recruiters and for candidates, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is the interview. Of course, it has changed in some ways – the questions, the discussion, the relations – but it hasn’t changed in meaning. People still think of interviews as a make or break because an interview paints a picture of the candidate’s personality, but it’s also a method for recruiters to explain the position, the company, and to establish a relationship.
The interview can vary in the way it’s conducted – the number of people interviewing a candidate (one, two, even more!), the way to which channels are used (over the phone, online, in person), whether it’s structured or not – and sometimes it takes a few rounds of interviews. And while all of these play a key role in what recruiters learn about the candidate – it’s also the other way around. That’s why the interview process should have a sort of a structure, which will help both sides get better acquainted.
It should be something like this:
- The interviewer(s)/recruiter(s) introduce(s) themselves
- The candidate introduces themselves
- Question phase (behavioral, situational, technical)
- Presenting the company, the project, the position, the benefits
- Questions from the candidate
- Disclosing what the next steps of the process are
Remember, the interview is a chance for candidates to present themselves in the best way, but also a chance for you as a recruiter to present the company properly!
Selection Phase
The selection process begins once we as recruiters (also all involved in the recruitment process) have gathered enough information about the candidates, and we start to see which one is best aligned with what we’ve envisioned as the “perfect candidate” from all standpoints – skill-wise, experience, cultural fitting – all the aspects that we consider as important.
After we find the one, we start the negotiations process by offering them the role and discussing all aspects of his employment.
Hired and Onboarding!
Once the candidate has decided to join your job as a recruiter has been finished, right?
Well, yes and no – paying attention to how your recruits are doing, seeing how they fit in, and watching them grow and develop is one of the most rewarding and educational experiences one can have. So, I strongly recommend you all to do it – a check-up here and there, catching up, seeing how they do – and enjoy that you’ve helped someone!
Finishing Thoughts
Sure, the recruitment and job-seeking process is a lot more complex than what I’ve laid out here, but these are the essentials, and all the other elements depend on all the factors we can rarely control. Sometimes candidates will pick a position somewhere else, some even may turn you down, or you might even spend months before finding the right candidate. Still, in the end, it’s all about matchmaking – matching a person with their dream job, and a company with an employee that can grow, develop, and contribute to the company!
Stay tuned for the upcoming Re:imagine session on www.it-labs.com/events.
Fiber Optic Communication:
Fiber optic Communication:
Applied Science and Implementation Scenarios with Blagoj Trajkoski
In the era when the volume and the speed of information transfer is increasingly valuable it’s very important to understand the technology behind it. It’s the speed of light that enables us to communicate in real time while we are on different continents around the globe. And thanks to that and the silica we were able to use fiber optic systems as irreplaceable digital communication systems.
In this Re:Imagine session held on 23.01.2023, we had Blagoj Trajkoski, Optical Network Engineer at Google, who explained the role of the fiber optic networks, while introducing the concepts of the physics applied behind it. By clicking PLAY on the video below, you will hear from Blagoj as he will walk through one “optical highway” with the accent of the amplification blocks. In the end, you’ll have the chance to look at and hear about some of the latest achievements in this field and the limitation factors.
Click play for the full session!
Professional Growth – Process, Tools and Roles
CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES
ENCOURAGE AND SUPPORT GROWTH
Why is career growth important not just for the employees, but for the company as well?
When we talk about career growth, there are multiple aspects that need to be taken into consideration, as they’re all important in the development of an individual, but the one thing that really makes a big difference is when personal and professional growth are “alligned”. If this is the case, what can we do to support the development of our employees?
In one of the Re:Imagine Session in the People Management series, Nikita Popova, People Specialist at IT Labs, elaborated at length on all the processes, tools, and methods that are used to ensure employees reach their potential.
The first step is the creation of a personal development plan and a well-structured career path for each position. A clear picture of the potential career path and what one can expect from the start are the two things that will offer the employe a feeling of security, increase motivation, give them a clear picture of the future, and allows them to plan on how to achieve it.
Once showing the possibilities, the next step is to provide the tools and support of how one can take that journey. There are many ways of doing so, and Nikita recommends taking a holistic approach to offer your employees a variety of ways they can learn and grow through:
- Tech-stack communities
- Technical training and courses
- Certificates
- Soft-skills training
- One on One Coaching sessions
- Mentoring Programs
- Mindfulness and well-being programs for personal development
- Well-structured processes for offering feedback to your employees
Taking care of talent will always be rewarding for an organization, and recognizing that there is no better investment than in the growth of your employees will only result in the growth of your organization.
Nikita went in detail on all these subjects during the ReIimagine session in the People Management series in her session that took place in November 2022, that was organized in collaboration with the Faculty of Philosophy.
Stay tuned for the upcoming Re:imagine session on www.it-labs.com/events.
Re:Imagine Session: Extracting Entities and Relations in Financial Data
Massive volumes of finance-related data are created on the Internet daily, whether on question-answering forums, news articles, or stock analysis sites. This data can be critical in the decision-making process for targeting investments in the stock market.
Extracting information from such sources in order to utilize the volumes of data, which is impossible to process manually is the core of this session. The study presented is based on the employment of different models for word embedding and different Deep Learning classification architectures for extracting the entities and predicting relations between them.
Furthermore, the multilingual abilities of a joint pipeline are being explored by combining English and German corpora. For both subtasks, we will show state-of-the-art performances of 97.69% F1 score for named entity recognition and 89.70% F1 score for relation extraction.
We had Igor Mishkovski PhD, professor at the Faculty for Computer Science and Engineering, dive deep into subject, in the Re:Imagine session that we held on 29.11.2022, and below, you can watch the whole session from start to finish!
Topics covered:
- Introduction;
- Dataset description;
- Methodologies;
- Results and Discussion;
- Future Work and Conclusion.
Click play for the full session!
Re:Imagine Session: Digital Transformation – Young People As Catalysts for Progress
We cannot be prepared for the future, without first thinking about and working on digitalization and digital skills. Every country that strives to grow and develop and become an important cog in the global economy must focus on digitalization. The benefits of a fully digitalized and functional society are endless – and this is something that developing countries can use to make big leaps on their path to modernization.
In Macedonia, there is a significant lack of people who have proper digital skills, and on average, are far behind their EU counterparts – and not just for professional use, but personal as well.
Young Macedonians are the ones that are expected to be the driving force behind this digitalization process, spearheading digital transformation in all areas, but what challenges are they facing now? How can that process be more efficient? What do young people need in order to be able to reach the “next level”?
This topic, these questions, and many more – were all part of the discussion we had at the Re:Imagine session that was organized together with Macedonia2025, titled ‘Digital Transformation – Young People As Catalysts for Progress’, held on 28.11.2022, at which we had Mihail Ognenovski as moderator, and Prof. Nikica Mojsoska-Blazevski, Marko Serafimovski, and Andrej Petreski as panelists!
A video of the discussion right on below!
Re:Imagine Session - To Kubernetes and Beyond
Starting out as an orchestration platform, Kubernetes has grown to become much more than that, becoming a cloud-native operating system that has received unprecedented interest from the industry with a thriving, continuously evolving ecosystem around it.
But what do Kubernetes mean for developers? How can they use them to their own benefit? In the Re:Imagine session held on November 23rd 2022, IT Labs’ Head of Technology, Kostadin Kadiev, answered all of these questions and elaborated traditional and new Kubernetes use cases, what can be expected from Kubernetes in the future, and how devs can contribute to the Kubernetes Ecosystem.
Topics covered:
- The rise of Kubernetes – a brief history.
- Kubernetes for Developers (why what and how).
- What to expect from Kubernetes in the future.
Click play for the full session!
Re:Imagine Session - Going Serverless with Azure Functions: Lessons Learned from Production
Microsoft Azure with Azure Functions is established as one of the biggest FaaS providers, and it allows companies and tech teams to write less code, maintain less infrastructure, and save on costs. Instead of worrying about deploying and maintaining servers, the cloud infrastructure provides all the up-to-date resources needed to keep your applications running. You focus on the code that matters most to you, in the most productive language for you, and Azure Functions handles the rest.
On November 17th, 2022, we had IT Labs’ Bojan Stojkov (Technical Lead) and Marija Bajdevska (Principal Software Engineer) – both of whom dived deep into Azure’s Functions, how to use them, and what to expect in the future!
Look at the session by clicking play on the video below!
Topics covered:
- Going serverless with Azure Functions – what should I know about it?
- Azure Functions – lessons learned
- Future of .NET on Azure Functions – what to expect?
- Q&A Session
HELM –Package Manager for Kubernetes
Helm is a tool that in some manner simplifies the process of deployment, maintenance, and removal of the applications in Kubernetes’ cluster. It is also called a Package Manager for Kubernetes, because it unites all needed Kubernetes resources for application in one single package that can be used for easy deploy, maintain, or remove application from Kubernetes.
Helm became quite popular, and many commonly used applications have their own helm charts publicly available that can be used for simple and quick installation on Kubernetes. Also, a lot of organizations are using Helm for their applications, integrating it in their CI/CD automation process.
On 10.11.2022, IT Labs’ Vladimir Trajchev will dived deep into the subject, in a Re:Imagine session, at which he talked about the perks of Helm, how it can help you, its functionalities, and how you can use it to your advantage!
A full video on the subject is right below.
Topics covered:
- Basic Helm Concepts
- Helm as a package manager
- Helm in Action (Demo1)
- Helm as a deployment template
- Helm in Action (Demo2)