Oracle Archives | Whitehall Resources

Getting to Know SDLC Methodologies

As project management advances, various Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodologies have been developed to guide organisations through intricate projects and achieve outstanding outcomes. Each methodology brings its own framework and practices designed to meet the needs of various project scopes and sectors.

This article explores six widely recognised SDLC methodologies: Lean, Agile, Waterfall, DevOps, Spiral, and Iterative, including the V-Model.

What is the Software Development Life Cycle?

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a structured framework used to develop software systematically and efficiently. It includes several distinct phases, each with its own set of activities and outputs, designed to facilitate the smooth progression of software development, optimal use of resources, and minimised risks.

The overarching goal of the SDLC is to deliver software that meets or surpasses customer expectations in terms of functionality, performance, and delivery timeline.

Lean Methodology Process

Lean methodology is a strategic approach aimed at enhancing business processes by eliminating waste and increasing value to the customer. Rooted in principles from the Toyota Production System, Lean focuses on streamlining operations, improving quality, and boosting efficiency. Here’s an overview of Lean’s core principles:

  • Identify Value: The first step in Lean is to understand what value means to the customers. This involves recognising the features and services that customers are truly willing to pay for, ensuring that the business focuses its efforts on delivering this value.
  • Map the Value Stream: This involves examining the entire lifecycle of a product or service, from inception to delivery, and identifying every step in the process. The goal is to pinpoint any actions that do not add value, termed as ‘waste’, which can then be targeted for elimination.
  • Create Flow: After identifying areas of waste, the next step is to streamline the process to ensure that work progresses smoothly without interruptions or delays. This might involve reorganising tasks, teams, or workflows to achieve a more efficient sequence of operations.
  • Establish Pull: Lean advocates for a demand-driven production system, where products are only made in response to customer demand, helping to minimise overproduction and reduce inventory costs. This ‘pull’ approach ensures that resources are allocated more efficiently and that products are more aligned with actual market needs.
  • Seek Perfection: Lean is an ongoing journey towards perfection, where continuous improvement is a constant goal. Businesses are encouraged to regularly evaluate their processes, seeking ways to reduce waste further and enhance value creation.

Lean is not just about processes; it’s also about people. It emphasises respect for the people doing the work, involving them in problem-solving and process improvements. This approach acknowledges that those closest to the work often have the best insights into how it can be improved.

Lean leadership is about setting a vision and empowering teams to achieve it. Leaders in a Lean environment focus on coaching and supporting their teams, removing obstacles, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. They step back from micromanagement, instead trusting their teams to make decisions and drive improvements. This leadership style encourages a more engaged, motivated workforce that is aligned with the organisation’s goals and committed to delivering value to customers.

Agile

The Agile methodology is a dynamic and interactive approach to project management and software development, prioritising flexibility, teamwork, and customer involvement. It’s designed to accommodate change and foster rapid delivery of high-quality products. Here’s a closer look at Agile:

  • Iterative Development: Agile breaks down projects into small, manageable units known as iterations or sprints. This structure allows teams to make incremental progress on the project while being able to adjust to new information or changes in requirements.
  • Collaboration: A core principle of Agile is fostering close collaboration among team members and with stakeholders. This ensures that everyone is aligned and can contribute effectively to decision-making processes.
  • Customer Feedback: In Agile, the customer or end-user plays a crucial role throughout the project. Their ongoing feedback is incorporated into each iteration, ensuring the final product truly meets their needs and expectations.
  • Adaptability: Agile methodologies are designed to be flexible, allowing teams to pivot or adjust priorities based on evolving project needs, new insights, or changing market conditions.

Agile methodologies empower teams to respond swiftly to changes in the market or customer preferences without derailing the overall project plan. This approach encourages a balance between detailed planning and the ability to incorporate feedback and adapt, ultimately helping to control costs and enhance product value.

The essence of Agile is about valuing human communication and collaboration over rigid processes and tools. It’s guided by principles prioritisingthat prioritise delivering functional, customer-focused products and services. Agile teams are self-organising, with members who define their own quality standards and work pace, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability.

Leadership in an Agile environment is about trust and support rather than control. By trusting in the team’s expertise and vision, leaders can foster an environment where creativity and innovation thrive, often leading to outcomes that surpass initial expectations.

Waterfall

The Waterfall methodology is a straightforward, step-by-step approach to software development and project management, characterised by its linear and orderly progression through distinct phases. Here’s how it unfolds:

  1. Structured Process: The project is neatly broken down into sequential stages, starting with gathering and documenting requirements and proceeding through designing, building, testing, and finally deploying the solution. Each phase is clearly outlined and must be completed before the next begins, with no overlap or cycling back.
  2. Clear Deliverables: At the end of each phase, there are specific, defined outputs or “deliverables” that need to be achieved before moving forward. This clarity helps in tracking progress and ensures that each stage is thoroughly completed.
  3. Documentation: A hallmark of the Waterfall methodology is its emphasis on detailed documentation. Right from the start, every aspect of the project is documented, providing a clear trail of what has been decided and done, which is particularly useful for understanding project scope and changes and for onboarding new team members.

The Waterfall model brings certain advantages, such as a stable and clear project scope, which aids in early estimation of costs and timelines. The early finalisation of designs minimises changes later on, contributing to a structured and easily understandable approach. The comprehensive documentation serves as a valuable reference throughout the project lifecycle.

However, the Waterfall methodology also has its limitations. Its rigid structure makes it difficult to accommodate changes once the project is underway, which can be a significant drawback in dynamic environments where requirements might evolve. Additionally, dependencies between phases can become a challenge, making it hard to estimate the total project duration accurately. The need to add contingency time to account for uncertainties can further extend timelines.

Balancing the strengths and weaknesses of the Waterfall methodology is essential for its successful application, making it well-suited for projects with well-defined requirements and less likelihood of significant change during development.

DevOps

DevOps is an approach that brings together the worlds of software development and IT operations, aiming to enhance collaboration, streamline workflows, and boost efficiency. It’s about merging the ‘Dev’ of development and the ‘Ops’ of operations into a cohesive unit that operates under a culture of shared responsibility and continuous enhancement.

Several key practices stand out:

  • Collaboration: It’s all about teamwork. DevOps breaks down the traditional barriers between the developers who build the software and the operations teams who deploy and manage it. This shared approach fosters better communication and understanding, enabling faster problem-solving and innovation.
  • Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD): This is about keeping the software delivery process smooth and steady. By automating the integration of code changes and ensuring that the software can be deployed at any time, teams can release updates more frequently and with greater confidence in their quality.
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): This practice involves managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. It allows for more efficient and error-free setup, scaling, and adjustment of infrastructure.
  • Monitoring and Feedback: Keeping a constant watch on applications and infrastructure is crucial in DevOps. It ensures that any issues can be caught and addressed early, and feedback can be quickly acted upon to improve performance and user experience.

Adopting DevOps, especially on a large scale, enables organisations to move faster, with more agility and adaptability. It helps in managing complex projects more effectively, ensuring they stay on course and align with broader business objectives. 

Continuous improvement is a core tenet, driving teams to refine processes and embrace automation, leading to enhanced efficiency, reliability, and product quality. Moreover, it positions organisations to better meet customer needs and adapt to changing market demands, thanks to the ability to iterate quickly and incorporate feedback into product development.

Spiral

The Spiral model is a sophisticated method for creating software that skillfully blends the step-by-step nature of the Waterfall model with the flexibility of the Iterative approach. It’s particularly aimed at reducing project risks and handling uncertainties by cycling through a series of phases.

Imagine undertaking a project as a journey through a spiral staircase, where each turn represents a cycle or phase of the project. At each turn of the spiral:

  1. Planning: You lay out the path for the current phase, decide what needs to be done, set objectives, and outline the work ahead.
  2. Risk Analysis: You then pause to look out for potential pitfalls or challenges that could derail your project, carefully analysing risks and thinking of ways to avoid or minimise them.
  3. Engineering: With risks assessed and plans in place, you roll up your sleeves and get to the actual work of building the software, creating prototypes when needed to test out ideas or components of the software.
  4. Evaluation: Finally, you review the progress, seeking feedback from stakeholders and evaluating the work done to ensure it meets the goals and is on the right track.

This spiral process allows for continuous refinement of the software, incorporating feedback and adapting to changing requirements, much like the Iterative model. The creation of prototypes during the engineering phase is a standout feature, offering a tangible way for users and stakeholders to interact with the proposed system and provide valuable feedback.

The Spiral model shines in scenarios where the stakes are high, and the projects are complex and laden with uncertainties. It allows teams to tackle risks proactively and make informed decisions at each phase, ensuring the development process remains controlled and flexible, ultimately leading to a high-quality software product that meets or exceeds expectations.

Iterative

The iterative model starts with a simple initial version of the software and builds on it through repeated cycles, known as iterations. Each iteration includes planning, designing, coding, and testing and builds upon the work done in previous cycles.

The process emphasises the importance of feedback and evaluation at the end of each iteration. This feedback, gathered from users or stakeholders, along with the development team’s assessments, helps identify what aspects of the software are working well, what areas need improvement, and what new features could be added. Based on this evaluation, changes and enhancements are planned for the next iteration, allowing for continuous refinement and adaptation of the software.

Over time, through these successive iterations, the software becomes more refined, feature-rich, and better aligned with user needs and project goals.

The Iterative model is particularly valuable in projects where requirements are expected to evolve or where learning from the actual use of the software can significantly influence its development. Unlike traditional models that try to define all requirements upfront and deliver a complete product in a single phase, the Iterative model allows for ongoing adjustments and improvements, making it a dynamic and responsive approach to software development.

The V-Model is a method for developing software that enhances the traditional Waterfall model by strongly focusing on testing at every phase.

It’s structured in a way that for each step in the development process, there’s a corresponding testing phase.

Here’s a simplified breakdown:

  • Sequential Steps: The process is straightforward and follows a set order: starting with defining requirements, moving through designing and building the software, and ending with testing and deployment.
  • V-Shaped Diagram: The model looks like a “V”. On the left side, you have development stages, and on the right side, you have the testing stages that correspond to each development stage.
  • Testing Alongside Development: For every development step, there’s a matching testing step. This ensures that testing is done in tandem with development, making it easier to catch and fix problems early on.
  • Early Problem Detection: Because testing is integrated from the start, issues can be identified and addressed early in the development cycle, saving time and effort.

While the V-Model brings structure and thorough testing to software development, it’s not as flexible for projects that need to adapt or evolve frequently. Agile might be more suitable for these kinds of projects, offering more flexibility and iterative development.

Selecting the appropriate project management methodology is crucial for the success of any project. By understanding the key aspects of Lean, Agile, Waterfall, DevOps, Spiral, Iterative, and the V-Model, organisations can make informed decisions and tailor their approach based on project complexity, requirements, and risks.

Ultimately, the right methodology can lead to more efficient processes, better collaboration, and higher-quality outcomes. As industries and technologies continue to evolve, organisations must remain adaptable and open to embracing new methodologies and best practices to stay competitive and achieve their goals.

Five job-hunting tips for IT professionals

The candidate market can seem saturated at the moment, with more talented candidates looking for work than ever before and seemingly fewer jobs available than before. Whilst times are undoubtedly difficult, the teams at Whitehall are seeing more businesses hiring again, and projects that were previously put on hold are now back on track.

With this in mind, it’s important to give yourself an edge that enables you to apply for roles as soon as they become available and stand out from the crowd.

Don’t rely on job boards alone

Job boards and search engines are obvious and essential tools when seeking a new role, but they aren’t the only place you should look. With thousands of jobs being posted online every day, it’s easy to become lost in a sea of jobs not suited to you or spend time looking at the same jobs over and over again. This can become frustrating and time-consuming.

Focus your efforts by seeking out specialists that are more likely to have roles that suit you. As well as checking roles from specialists, you need to ensure your details are registered with them. Recruitment consultants have large networks of candidate contacts, and you need to make sure you are on their radar. If we have roles in your area of interest, be sure to register with us so our consultants have easy access to your details so you appear in their searches, and be sure to set up job alerts to hear about the latest roles via email. We also have an app so you can be directly notified of suitable roles according to your preferences.

If there are specific companies you have an interest in working with, follow the company on LinkedIn, and connect with some relevant personnel. Many companies will advertise roles via their social media platforms before posting on numerous job sites so it can be a good way of seeing roles before the crowds.

Apply quickly

With the number of applicants for roles at high levels, make sure you do everything you can to have your application viewed and considered for the roles you apply for. Applying quickly can help you to stand out. As previously mentioned, setting up alerts will help you to see roles as soon as they become available. If you see a role that you like, apply as soon as possible. Don’t wait until an advertised deadline or until the weekend, you’ll be at the back of the queue. With the number of applicants applying for roles, some clients may even close the job early if they receive enough outstanding applications for consideration. Get yours in as soon as possible to ensure you have a better chance at being considered early. It isn’t unusual for an agency to receive 200+ applications for some roles so do everything you can to be one of the first they read.

Provide a strong cover letter

A CV helps a recruiter and business understand your skills and work experience but a strong covering letter/statement can help them to understand why you would be a great candidate for a role. A covering letter should not be a repeat of your CV, nor should it be a list of your hobbies and interests. A good cover letter shows that you are serious about your application and understand the role well. Highlight elements of the job description and match aspects of your CV to these. Demonstrate your understanding of the business and why you wish to work for this company specifically. A good, tailored covering statement can help to put across your skills, understanding of the role, and personality prior to an initial interview.

Keep track of your applications

It’s easy to find yourself applying for numerous roles and sometimes you may not hear back from them for a few weeks. By then, it’s likely you will have forgotten elements of the job description and what interested you about the role. Create a file and note down the job descriptions of the roles you apply for. This will help you to keep track of the roles and enable you to quickly retrieve information about the role when a recruiter calls you to discuss the role. Having the job information to hand to discuss straight away helps you to come across as organised, professional, and focused on the opportunity at hand. Recruiters put through the best candidates to their clients, so if you’re not clear on the role, or are vague on why you are a great match, it’s unlikely your application will proceed further.

Stay positive

There’s no doubt that the candidate market is very competitive at the moment. Following all of these suggestions doesn’t guarantee your next application will be successful.  It’s important to try to remain positive when you receive knock backs, keep your persistence up, and seek out new opportunities to apply for. If you are unsuccessful in an application, where possible try to obtain as much feedback from the client or recruiter as possible, as this might help you to refine your future applications. Recruiters and clients might not always be able to give solid feedback (depending on how far you made it through the process) but feedback could highlight skills or experience that you did not promote enough on your CV. Learning this will help you improve your CV, cover letter and how you present yourself in conversations. Staying positive will not only help your mental health, it will also come across well in applications and eventual interviews.

The art of the remote interview

Lockdowns and travel restrictions in 2020 have resulted in the hiring process relying heavily on remote interview processes, with many organisations indicating that they will continue to interview this way even after the pandemic eases. While it can be more convenient to be interviewed via video from the comfort of your own home, it can still massively help or hinder your application based on your performance. Here are some tips for giving your remote interview that winning edge.

Dress for the occasion

A video interview is still an interview so you do everything you can to look as smart and professional as possible. While it is often tempting to only dress smartly from the waist up, as that is all that will be visible on camera, there is a lot to be said about getting yourself in a positive, fully focused mindset. The more you can get yourself in the same mindset as you would if you were going to face-to-face interview the more professional you will come across. Dressing fully as if you were going to such an interview can help you to achieve that.

Lighting, sound and positioning

You want to ensure that you are in a well-lit room with as little noise and distraction as possible. Try to have any light source either above you or facing you. Practice with your own camera to find out what works best for you. If possible try different rooms to see what gives you the best results. It may be that one room suits morning interviews whereas another suits afternoon ones due to light and acoustics. Also try to position your camera at eye level. If you are using a home office space and PC it is likely that the camera is already almost at eye level. However, if you are using a laptop, tablet or phone the likelihood is that when the camera is operated you are looking down at it. Having the camera at eye level frames you better on the screen and also creates a much more direct and engaging angle, and helps you to sit more upright rather than in a leaning or slouched position. Also consider your background when finding somewhere suitable to sit. A jumble of clutter over your shoulder might give a negative impression, whereas a bookcase or tidy shelves will come across much better. If in doubt, use a plain wall.

Test connectivity

Despite your best efforts to look the part, poor connectivity can really distract and even result in you cutting out and not coming across clear and concise. All the leading video sharing tools allow you to test video and audio connectivity prior to joining the scheduled meeting. If you are having connectivity issues there are a couple of things you can do to improve this. Where possible connecting via Ethernet rather than WiFi can create a more stable connection. Also, try temporarily disconnecting other devices that are using the internet at the same time such as mobiles and smart devices.

Use your environment

One major advantage you have in interviewing remotely is that the interviewers can only see you, not your surroundings. This enables you to use your environment to help you to remember key facts, dates, statistics that you wish to get across during your interview. In a face to face interview, you would have to rely on either your memory or take numerous notes with you to refer to. While this is not unprofessional at all and can be a demonstration of your detailed research and preparation for an interview. Place notes and reminders at eye level on the wall behind the camera or around the camera so that you can quickly refer to them when required. Keep it to pivotal dates, statistics or a particular statement that you are keen to get across during the interview.

Always log on early

Just as you would leave early to get to a face to face interview allowing yourself time should there be travel hold-ups, you should adopt the same approach with video interviews. You could be as prepared as possible only to find that your laptop has suddenly decided to download annual updates before starting. The platform that the client or recruiter has invited you to join might by having performance issues. Attempting to log in early will help you to be in a better position to come up with a contingency and still make the meeting on time. If the platform itself is the issue then don’t be afraid to contact the interviewer as it is likely that they are experiencing similar issues and can maybe provide you an alternative link to join.

CV writing tips for IT professionals

Competition for jobs in the UK is fierce, so as a candidate, you’ll want to do all you can to stand out from the crowd. Your CV is your first impression, and a good CV could open the door to your next interview.

1. Include all your essential details

It’s surprising how many people forget to add these: name, address, nationality, country of residence, contact number, email address, and the languages you speak (and proficiency). Some countries like to see a photo of the candidate on the CV – your recruiter will let you know if that’s the case.

2. Start with your most recent experience first

When a recruiter picks up your CV for the first time, they are interested in your most current and relevant experience. To make a solid first impression, list your most recent job roles and projects at the top of your document. When listing your work experience, consider adding more information about relevant functions and less about those without relevance. The further back your CV goes, the less information is required on specific tasks, and challenges performed years ago.

3. Tailor your CV to the job role

Although the style and layout of your CV are undoubtedly important, the proof is in the content. If you’re applying for a job that has been advertised, then take the time to match the language used in your CV to that used in the advert. If possible, make a copy of the original job advert and take note of the essential skills and experience. Adjust your CV to provide examples of these specific skills and strengthen your claims by highlighting your expertise in those areas.

4. Quantify your achievements

Anybody can claim that they contributed to a company’s overall target, but only the most efficient candidates provide statistics and figures to back up their claims. Where possible, try to give some context to your achievements: how quickly did you complete your project? How did this compare to previous projects under the same remit? Any specific numbers you provide will help a recruiter better understand your achievements, so the more specific you can be, the better.

5. Have a unique selling point

What genuinely makes you different from other candidates? Everyone has a particular strength that makes them valuable to a company; please mention yours. Anyone can list ‘soft skills’ as a strength, but highlighting a specific aspect of your personality that stands out will ultimately be more relevant and impressive than generic skills everyone has.

6. Use keywords

Just as websites are commonly optimised for search engines, your CV and online profiles should also be written in a way that makes them easy to find. Recruitment agencies and hiring managers often search for candidates online, so you must ensure your online profile is optimised. Identify the keywords you want to be identified by and make sure that your CV and online social profiles reflect this. Using terms like “the latest technologies” won’t help you, be specific. Ensure you complete your Linkedin and job board profiles where the option is available, and take the time to do so. It might lead to your next interview!

Tip: Look at several job descriptions of roles you are interested in and include some of their keywords that match your skills and experience in your CV.

7. Do not exaggerate

Exaggerating your experience or some other detail on your CV will likely result in an embarrassing situation before, during or after the interview. When found out, it won’t look good and will probably be the end of the process for you. So always ensure that the information you are giving is truthful.


If you’re looking for your next IT job opportunity, Whitehall Resources provides specialist IT recruitment services to some of the biggest and best-known brands worldwide. So register your CV to stay up to date with the latest IT jobs across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and the US.

SAP Jobs Oracle Jobs IT Jobs

Interoperability between Oracle Cloud and Microsoft Azure

Oracle and Microsoft announced an Oracle Cloud and Microsoft Azure interoperability partnership last year. This comes after Microsoft Azure was designated as a first-class host for Oracle workloads and the perfect platform to run the Oracle Cloud. Clients looking for serverless and more agile systems are recommended to move to the public cloud on Microsoft Azure for seamless migration.

The partnership’s biggest differentiation is application interoperability, as Oracle provides full certification for E-Business Suite when running on Azure. Customers can now run seamlessly one part of a workload within Azure and another part of the same workload within the Oracle Cloud, taking advantage of the best of both clouds and having access to a wide range of enterprise cloud solutions and Microsoft portfolios.

“Oracle and Microsoft have served enterprise customer needs for decades. With this partnership, our joint customers can migrate their entire set of existing applications to the cloud without having to re-architect anything, preserving the large investments they have already made.” – Don Johnson, executive vice president, of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

New capabilities of the Oracle-Azure partnership

  • Connect Azure and Oracle Cloud seamlessly, allowing customers to extend their on-premises data centres to both clouds.
  • Unified identity and access management across resources in Azure and Oracle Cloud.
  • Supported deployment of custom applications and packaged Oracle applications on Azure with Oracle databases deployed in Oracle Cloud.
  • A collaborative support model to help IT organisations deploy these new capabilities.
  • Oracle Database will continue to be certified to run in Azure on various operating systems, including Windows Server and Oracle Linux.

Nick Wallace, Director of Microsoft, confirmed recently at the Oracle Open World event in London that 95% of 500 Fortune companies already use Microsoft Azure. Industries range from manufacturing, automotive, airlines and public sectors, and include brands like Honeywell, BMW and Walmart. A lot of these companies are also Oracle customers and will be receiving Microsoft’s support when migrating their workloads to the Public Cloud.

“We do truly believe we are better together, and this solution, genuinely, we believe is one of the best enterprise public Cloud solutions and we are really excited to see the possibilities this will unlock for you, our customers, in the future” – said Mr Wallace.

Is your business IR35 ready?

The changes to the IR35 rules in the private sector are causing concerns for medium and large-sized businesses across the UK. From April 6, 2020, these organisations will be responsible for determining whether a contractor is inside or outside IR35. If an HMRC investigation results in any penalties, it is the fee-paying client that will be liable for back taxes, National Insurance contributions, interest and late payment fees.

Businesses are now reviewing their contractor workforce plans, hiring practices, payroll processes, and relationships with recruitment agencies in order to ensure they are compliant with the legislation when the changes get rolled out.

Do the IR35 changes apply to my business?

This change applies only to medium and large-sized businesses. This includes any company that meet two of the three following conditions for the last two consecutive financial years:

  1. Over £10.2 million revenue
  2. Over 50 employees
  3. Over £5.2 million on the balance sheet

Even then, a business only legally gets classified as new size at the beginning of the next government fiscal year (the following April).

Who is liable?

In situations where a contractor is deemed to have been incorrectly placed outside IR35, the liability sits with the organisation that pays the contractor (i.e. the client or the recruitment agency). There are situations where this liability passes to the client e.g. if a determination hasn’t been made or hasn’t passed down the supply chain, or the fee payer is unable to pay. By using a reputable and diligent recruitment agency with a strong financial record, these risks are minimised.

What does inside or outside of IR35 mean?

Inside IR35 –The contractor is considered, for tax purposes, to be an employee of the client due to the nature of their role written in the contract and in practice.

Outside IR35 – The contractor is considered to be a legitimate independent business providing a product/service for a client due to the nature of their role written in the contract and in practice.

Are my contractors inside or outside of IR35?

It all depends on the relationship between the contractor and your business, as laid out in the contract and working practices. A few key factors that should be considered:

  • Direction and control: Does the contractor have the authority over the work they do as well as how, when, and where they do it?
  • Substitution: Is the contractor able to hire someone to do their work for them / provide them with substantial help with the work?
  • Mutuality of obligation: Is the client free to not provide the contractor with continuous work once the contract has ended and, if they do, is the contractor free to decline further work from the client?
  • Financial risk: Is the contractor required to rectify defective work at their own cost? Do they have their own insurances?

If the answer to the questions above is ‘yes’, then the contractor may be considered outside of IR35.

If any of the answers to the questions above is ‘no’, then the contractor is inside IR35 rules and will be taxed on their earnings through the normal employee PAYE scheme.

How can my businesses remain compliant?

In order to remain compliant with IR35, based on the draft legislation, from 6 April 2020 your businesses will need to:

  1. Provide the contractor and the recruitment agency (where applicable) with an IR35 status determination statement.
  2. Demonstrate reasonable care when making the status determination, including considering the key factors discussed above.
  3. Respond to any disagreement (with reasons) made by the contractor or the agency (where applicable) within 45 days.
  4. Notify the contractor or the agency (where applicable) of the business’s change to a small business (as the new rules will not apply to them at that point).

We can help

We have worked with clients in the public sector who have already been affected by the rules under IR35 since 2017. These clients include HMRC, Home Office, Ministry of Defence and police forces, and we currently provide support to our candidates and clients regarding the new changes.

We can:

  • Manage contractor communication and dispute resolution on your behalf.
  • Guarantee that your legal requirement to have used ‘best endeavours’ to arrive at the determination has been met.
  • Manage the determination review process on your behalf, providing a single, simple questionnaire to the relevant person within your organisation.
  • Indemnify you against all costs, fees, penalties and liabilities arising from any challenge relating to the determination or the subsequent engagement.

Learn more on:

IR35 changes impacting private sector companies & contractors

IR35: Why you should review your working practices

Contractor Payroll Services  SAP and IT recruitment

UK work permits for Europeans – latest Brexit update

Following the most recent UK elections held last December, there have been a few changes in regards to the routes that European citizens can take to be able to live and work in the UK legally after Brexit. Don’t panic, it is all positive, so please keep reading.

Firstly, when is Brexit?

Brexit day is on 31st January 2020, this is when trade talks with the EU will begin to try to reach new agreements. The deadline to reach an agreement is at the end of this year, on the 31st December 2020 – unless an extension is requested by the 30th June 2020.  The UK will then start the transition on the 1st January 2021, regardless of whether an agreement with the EU has been reached (soft Brexit) or no agreement has been made (hard Brexit).

Applying to the European Settlement Scheme

If you are already living in the UK, the quickest and least expensive option (it’s free) is to apply to the European Settlement Scheme. Once you apply to this scheme, you’ll be granted either a pre-settled or a settled status. You’ll get pre-settled status if you’ve lived in the UK less than five years and settled status if you’ve lived in the UK for five years or more. People with pre-settled status can apply for a settled status once they have completed five years living in the UK.

Who can apply to the European Settlement Scheme?

  • European citizens from the EU, EEA and Switzerland currently living in the UK
  • European citizens from the EU, EEA and Switzerland moving to the UK before Brexit exit dates
  • European citizens with a UK permanent residence status
  • European citizens with indefinite leave to remain
  • EU, EEA and Swiss Frontier workers wanting to live in the UK
  • Non-EU citizens living in the UK who are family of EU frontier workers
  • European citizens who start work or self-employment in another EU country but return home every week
  • Citizens who fall into other categories

European citizens living in the UK

All European citizens from the EEA (European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and Switzerland currently living in the UK are required to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.

Citizens holding a British passport, Irish passport or indefinite leave to remain are exempt from applying. Citizens with indefinite leave to remain can choose to apply if they would like to take advantage of an extension in the length of time they can live outside of the UK without losing their status.

The deadline to apply depends on whether the UK leaves with or without a deal as follows:

Deal: Apply for EU Settlement Scheme by 30th June 2021

No deal: Apply for EU Settlement Scheme by 31st December 2020 (deadline has been extended)

UK permanent residents

All EEA or Swiss citizens with UK permanent residence must apply either to the European Settlement Scheme or for British citizenship (if they are eligible) before the UK leaves the EU as follows:

Deal: Apply for EU Settlement Scheme or British Citizenship by 30th June 2021

No deal: Apply for EU Settlement Scheme or British Citizenship by 31st December 2020

Find out more about applying for British Citizenship

If you start work or self-employment in another EU country

If you’re an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen you can get settled status if you start work or self-employment in another EU country as long as you have lived and worked or been self-employed in the UK continuously for three years beforehand, and usually return to your UK home once a week. Your family may also be eligible for settled status if they were a family member at the time you started work or self-employment in another EU country.

Frontier workers

If you are a frontier worker who is not living in the UK, you will be able to continue crossing borders and do not need to apply for the European Settlement Scheme to be able to enter the UK to work. However, if you’d like to live in the UK, you’ll be required to apply for the European Settlement Scheme.

Non-EEA citizen family members of an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen frontier workers can also apply for this scheme if the EU, EEA or Swiss citizen frontier worker does not live in the UK, as long as the family member does. Find out more about rules for frontier workers and their families.

Europeans intending to move to the UK

If you are intending to move to the UK to live permanently, there is one deadline to enter the country and another deadline to apply for the EU Settlement Scheme.  It is imperative that you are already in the country when applying. The dates depend on whether the UK leaves the EU with a deal or without a deal as follows:

Deal

  • Enter the country by 31stDecember 2020
  • Apply for EU Settlement Scheme by 30thJune 2021

No deal

  • Enter the country by the date the UK leaves the EU, currently set at 31stDecember 2020 (deadline has been extended)
  • Apply for EU Settlement Scheme by 31stDecember 2020

Applying for British citizenship

If you are eligible, you can apply for British citizenship to gain full British citizen rights. This process involves taking the Living in the UK Test and an English language test, as well as completing some paperwork and an application fee, amongst other requirements.

You can apply for British citizenship if you hold any of the following status:

To apply for British citizenship, you should have lived in the UK for at least 12 months after gaining any of the above status, unless you are married to a British citizen in which case, you’ll be able to apply straight away.

Please note: all information above is correct to the best of our knowledge at time of writing. Please be sure to do your own research and seek professional advice if you are unsure or visit the UK government website for further details and applying.

You can see our SAP, Oracle and IT job opportunities in the UK here:

SAP Jobs in the UK IT Jobs in the UK

Oracle serves up solutions for the food and beverage industry

The restaurant industry is one of the largest employers in the United States, providing jobs to over 15 million people – around 10% of the overall U.S. workforce. Different countries and cultures around the world prefer different types of service – fast food, table, counter service – what they all have in common is customers who are not only looking for good food but also for an enjoyable experience. Oracle Hospitality Symphony Cloud Service, built for this billion-dollar industry, includes tools for small businesses, restaurant chains and venues that ensure timely guest seating, loyalty tracking, food delivery and more.

Restaurant chain benefits from Oracle’s innovation

Wagamama is a British chain that serves Asian food across over 150 restaurants in 20 countries. As a restaurant that serves ‘good food, fast’, recognising customers’ needs and acting quickly is key. Wagamama adopted Oracle Symphony as an innovative solution to integrate all the stages of the customer experience.

The Wagamama experience starts when the customer is welcomed at the door and seated. A member of staff greets them at the table within a minute and takes drink orders via handheld devices that send the order straight to the bar staff, who can prepare the drinks and bring them to the table. The use of handheld devices mean the staff can easily manage orders without having to run between the guest, till, bar and kitchen, making the process quicker and smoother as well as avoiding forgetting any orders. Food orders are sent to the chefs’ touch screens, helping to keep the kitchen organised. Once the food is ready, a ticket can be printed to organise the food for the front-of-house staff to take to the tables. After finishing their meal, customers have the option to pay immediately by downloading Qkr!, an app from Mastercard that is integrated into the Oracle system, where they can review their order and make payment rather than waiting for a member of staff. Furthermore, the Wagamama website and app are also able to send orders direct to the kitchen. With Oracle Hospitality Symphony Cloud Service, Wagamama can be consistent in its delivery and continue moving forward with its expansion plans.

Small business retains customers with seamless ordering

Oracle Symphony is also used by stand-alone restaurants. Caractère is an independent restaurant in London. Opening a restaurant with a new and unique concept is a challenge for any restauranteur, who must create a signature menu that customers would like to return to. The quality of the food and looking after their guests is essential for this type of business, one of the main reasons for owners Emily Roux and Diego Ferrari to adopt Oracle Food and Beverage software.  Roux and Ferrari opted for a combination of Symphony Cloud Point of Sale Platform, Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 family and the Compact Workstation 310, which has provided them with simple but important benefits like a seamless ordering process that informs cooks clearly about customers’ dietary requirements or allergies and avoids any slip-ups or confusion. This process saves time for the front-of-house staff, who can concentrate on ensuring their guests have a positive experience.

Oracle Jobs

According to the National Restaurant Association in the U.S.

  • 52% consumers say they would rather spend money on an experience such as a restaurant or other activity, than purchasing something from a store.
  • 50% consumers say the availability of a customer loyalty and reward program would make them choose one restaurant over another.
  • Two-thirds of consumers say their favourite restaurant foods provide flavours they can’t easily duplicate at home.
  • 26% consumers say the availability of tableside electronic ordering and payment options would make them choose one restaurant over another.

Pricing and cashing at events venues

The Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg organises around 140 events every year. The venue replaced legacy systems with Oracle Hospitality Symphony Point of Sale to manage their bars, restaurants, fast food outlets and kiosks more efficiently and maximise sales during short windows – a few hours before the event, during intermissions and minutes after the event is over. Through adding contactless card processing, hand-held devices and self-service ordering touch screens to their retail options, they have reduced queues, have faster transactions and created a better experience for their customers. The order and replenishment real-time inventory functions provide better control and cash management, as well as real-time reporting and forecasting.

Toyota Stadium, a 20,000-seat football stadium in Texas, hosts a range of events from high school and professional football matches to music concerts. The Event Based Pricing functionality of the Oracle Food and Beverage suites, enables organisers to prepare menu templates for each type of event, based on different guests’ preferred food choices and with adequate pricing for the type of guest. It enables the team at Toyota Stadium to offer combo meals or remove certain items when required, allowing the hosts to provide unique fan experiences and increase revenue without huge labour costs, usually involved with making item and price changes across hundreds of menus throughout the stadium.

Other functionalities of Oracle Symphony Cloud Service

  • Conversational ordering feature that improves accuracy and speed of service
  • Automatic combo and fixed-price menu recognition features, calculating special price
  • Online and call-ahead orders to the kitchen based on when they are needed
  • Reservations and waitlist table management feature
  • Accurate food delivery and option to hand out separate bills with the seat management feature
  • Staff scheduling, ensuring different locations are never understaffed or overstaffed

Oracle Jobs

Managing talent with Oracle HCM Cloud

Gartner has named Oracle a Leader in their Magic Quadrant for Cloud HCM Suites for 1,000+ Employees for the fourth consecutive year. The rankings are determined by ‘completeness of vision and ability to execute’ with Oracle being highlighted due to outstanding customer feedback on functionality, overall product capability, being one of only two vendors offering platform as a service (PaaS) as well as the mobile capabilities including the new voice-enabled digital assistant.

Oracle supports thousands of businesses globally, with the following being some good examples of Oracle HCM and ERP Cloud in action.

Overcoming acquisition ERP complications

TrueBlue is a workforce management and managed service provider based in Washington, managing brands like PeopleReady (trade workers) and Centerline (drivers). Through business acquisition and organic expansion, TrueBlue also inherited more than 20 financial and HR systems that sometimes overlapped or conflicted with each other. To resolve this, they replaced all their systems, including old Oracle applications, with Oracle HCM Cloud and Oracle ERP Cloud. They now use applications like JobStack, which helps employers place talent orders and connect directly with more than 700,000 qualified workers a year.

“Hire the right people, and if they’re happy, you’ve got a better chance of keeping your customers happy. If you keep your customers happy, you’ve got more opportunity to drive revenue per employee.” – Derrek Gafford, CFO, Trueblue.

Managing thousands of employees across four continents

Kajima Corporation, one of the oldest and largest construction companies in Japan has subsidiaries across Asia, Oceania, Europe and North America. With 7,600+ employees, the skyscraper and the bridge-building company was looking for a solution that could help them unify HR information across the whole company. Kajima Corporation decided to implement Oracle HCM Cloud to resolve this challenge due to its advanced HR, Talent Management and Workforce Management, as well as the ability to analyse company-wide HR data. They’ve now left legacy systems behind and are able to engage with the thousands of new and current employees across the business.

“Our HR information unification is now underway in a single system, allowing us to analyse company-wide HR data. We will work strategically on staffing for the right people, and to foster successors.“ – Takashi Dedachi, HR Manager, Kajima Corporation.

Improving software accessibility

IBVI (Industries for the Blind and Visually Impaired) is an organisation that manufactures office supplies and custom furniture, as well as provides warehouse and distribution solutions. IBVI focuses on employing and creating opportunities within their business for blind and visually impaired individuals. These employees, who currently represent more than 80% of its direct-labour workforce, perform a range of jobs, from assembling tool kits to office roles.

Oracle Cloud Applications’ compatibility with technologies such as JAWS text-to-speech and Zoomtext screen reader has enabled visually-impaired employees to navigate Oracle ERP Cloud to take on tasks such as tracking orders, and at a management level it has given IBVI the capability of combining data from Finance, HR Production and more to help identify opportunities within the business to hire more visually impaired employees.

Customer Service Director of IBVI, Deborah Ambro-Crandell – who lost her sight at age 16 – manages a team of 12 employees of which only one is not visually impaired. Mrs Ambro-Crandell recently joined OOW 2019 as a guest speaker along with IBVI’s CEO CJ Lange to talk about the benefits that Oracle Cloud Applications have brought to their team and the bright future and goals of IBVI.

“We have some of the most skilled and talented workers on the planet, we just have to give them access—to our facilities, to information, and to career opportunities—for them to thrive,” says Lange.

Steve Miranda, Vice-President of Oracle Applications Product Development, carried out a demonstration of the Oracle Cloud during Oracle Open World 2019 where you can see the Digital Assistant in action, as well as analytics, measuring risk in productivity, financials and lots more – well worth a watch!

Oracle moves to the Oracle Cloud

In late 2018, Oracle announced they would run their business in the Oracle Cloud to gain a better insight into the challenges and needs of their customers.

What did Oracle learn from running in the Cloud?

Oracle discovered that customised processes can lead to greater complexities further down the line. For them, the multiple levels of approval needed for contract sign-off and the complexity of the contracts themselves were big barriers to efficiency. These were all quickly removed once this was identified. Salespeople can now view individual customer requests and the appropriate contract terms, and present to clients in half the time. The efficiency of this streamlined process is enhancing the customer’s experience.

A similar concept has been applied to the expenses system, where they had originally added a series of functions to the expenses submittal process that benefited the finance department. Feedback from Oracles’ own employees quickly showed that this greatly complicated the process for users, so these changes were rolled back, and submitting expenses now takes only a few seconds.

After learning first-hand that streamlining processes is the way forward, Oracle now releases about 100 optional features on a quarterly basis, instead of offering customised functionality. As well as greatly derisking changes by removing or reducing customisations, Oracle users need only worry about change management – communication and user training is key.

What’s new since moving to the Cloud?

During the OOW 2019, co-founder and CTO of Oracle Larry Ellison announced the enhancements made to Oracle Autonomous Database, their “self-driving” database technology that runs in Generation 2 Oracle Cloud.

The enhancements include a dedicated deployment option that provides the highest level of security, reliability and operational control for database workload and the availability of Oracle Cloud VMware Solution, which enables customers to migrate on-premises VMware environments to Oracle Generation 2 Cloud Infrastructure. Oracle’s latest technology is based on machine learning that automates upgrading, patching, and performing tuning tasks, eliminating human error and manual tuning.

Oracle also announced a new release of Enterprise Manager, a tool to manage Oracle database that provides expanded support for Oracle Autonomous Database.

Our favourite takeaway is however the latest AI-trained voice with Oracle Digital Assistant, a technology that Oracle claims can understand the context better than other AI assistants such as Alexa or Siri. The Digital Assistant analyses enterprise and domain-specific vocabulary and integrates with human workflow and business processes without any coding required, allowing enterprises to build conversational experiences. This next-generation assistant applies AI in natural language processing (NLP), natural language understanding (NLU) and custom machine learning (ML) algorithms.