TESTING COVID TIMES

 

Innovation as Always

Innovation has always come out of the toughest of situations. This continues during our current pandemic as well. When numerous businesses have been forced to shut down with the slowdown of the market, innovators have been working at lightning speed to bring out inventions and processes into the industry to try and keep business afloat as much as possible. From drone delivery of medicines and food to easily pocketable UV sanitizer stickers, we have seen technology innovations that have been helping people and businesses continue as they were before. Additionally, new technology like the Aarogya Setu and social distancing apps for restaurants that help businesses restart after the lockdowns are also gaining prominence.

The IT Impetus to Innovation

Almost all of the innovations we have seen during pandemic has been possible due to Technology. Be it the actual product or service itself being a technology, to using technology to deliver the service or product to the end customers to making the marketplace safer for use of the service, everything has been achieved with technology. IT professionals are the lot of people we saw working the most after healthcare workers, day and night, meeting impossible deadlines to churn out solutions that helped economies move ahead.

IT Organizations have raised up to the current business need by reducing turn-around times, enabling remote deployments and building products and services on the fly to support demand.

Responsibility of the Testing Practice

While IT is playing a crucial role in supporting business domains to reach customers using technology and is fast replacing earlier business models, the underlying tone of the businesses that are prolific during pandemics is also that of low cost. And at times like this it is usually the testing practice that falls under scrutiny of cost reduction programs. To ensure that companies do not lose focus on Quality and continues delivering robust services and product Quality teams have to ensure that they reinvent and adapt where required.

Adoption of automation has to go up significantly because there is less and less time available for the industry to test. Right now, when it is all about how time to market can be made shorter, most organizations will be forced to cut down on elaborate manual testing. It is imperative to adopt automation in order to attain maximum test coverage and cycles of test execution.    

At Prakat, we have always had a tradition of creating strong testing assets by continuously innovating with inhouse accelerators and processes that can help kickstart testing earlier in the lifecycle. We help our customers build strong automation frameworks that can be replicated across their assets and be used to reduce the ideation-to-market times for new products and services. This has helped us cope well with the changing trends in the industry, support critical deployments of clients and respond quickly to changing needs of our client base.

Organizations need to adopt wider automation testing to be able to support continuous innovation and to be able to capitalize on the current requirements of the industry. This also helps build a stronger delivery practice, avid bottlenecks for releases and re-prioritize work based on the situation to attain more productivity.

GAAD 2020 : Accessibility during Crisis

" Like every year we got together for GAAD, this time online, with people from across the globe to talk about the one thing that unites us - our passion towards an inclusive world.

A week later, as I think of all the GAADs we have come through and all the milestones we have covered, I can't help but go back to the roots of where my accessibility thoughts were born. I was inspired by an aunt who spent a big part of her life helping people with disabilities live with dignity. She was herself inspired by a personal loss in her life. I meet many people like this who are either inspired by profound incidents or their own necessities to learn what accessibility is and work towards inclusivity. The strange things about current times is that everybody is facing accessibility issues at this moment.

The past few weeks we have all been trying to live under limited infrastructure, making the most of things and any technological support has been lifesaving. The same is what we have been aspiring in the area of accessibility. To be able to make lives easier by simple and much needed changes. Just like how from today, every IT service and product will consider a Covid like situation as contingency to work through, so should we consider accessibility as a parameter that all our IT should seamlessly work with.

The past few months have seen innovators think more deeply about psychological aspects of working under limitations, assistive technologies that can help mitigate such situations etc. And this is what we have been advocating through GAAD every year: that technology be made to suit working under limitations and caters to humans across all spectrums.

This year's GAAD brought in so many thinking points to ponder over, in all these areas. The psychological aspects of working under different circumstances, technology empowerment at a cognitive level, the importance of technology in helping create environments of positive mental simulations, building interfaces that are easy to use and connect to. We discussed how we believe that designers and developers should have that empathy and not assume that everyone they know is starting from where they're starting from. There were in-depth discussions about products and services that are currently available in the market that have helped people through these tough times and how these features are also accessible features. It reiterates the message we have conveyed in all GAAD events. Make services and products accessible not to cater to a particular crowd but to improve its overall efficiency and acceptance. We talked about how students are coping and learning through Covid times, and how this area poses a growing interest area for ideators and entrepreneurs who can identify and build solutions to cover gaps. We talked about challenges, learnings, policies, initiatives and way forward. And I could see the silver lining of the Covid times, because now inclusivity and accessibility is everybody's need of the hour. I can't wait for GAAD 2021 to see all the new milestones we would have collectively achieved towards universal inclusion."

- Anuradha Biswas

 

Intuit Accessibility Summit 2017

Intuit Accessibility Summit 2017 was held at their Bangalore office on October 12th.  This year’s topic was “Accessibility for all”.

Ashwin (CPACC certified Accessibility Specialist) from Prakat Solutions presented a tech talk on “Accessibility is essential for some but useful to all”. Interesting topics were unfolded with appealing personal experiences. He said disability is a design impact not medical impact. Our inaccessible designs are making people disables. We need to think of various innovative solutions to break barriers faced by people with special needs.

He presented various myths about accessibility. Accessibility will not just benefit a small minority but it covers a wider category of people with temporary, episodic and age-related disabilities. Accessibility is often an afterthought in product development lifecycle. The right thing to do is to have accessibility in mind from the development stage. Most people think accessibility is hard and expensive. But the truth is, one has to have passion and a basic understanding of challenges faced by people with disabilities in using ICT products.
Secondly, it's expensive only if it is an afterthought. ‘Accessibility is ugly’ is another myth where people think accessibility fixes impact UI and decreases the performance of their product. Actually, 90% of accessibility fixes happen on DOM (Document object model) which is totally invisible to normal users.

Another interesting fact about Usability Vs. Accessibility is usability best practices increases the accessibility of the product and vice-versa. At the end, various benefits like how accessibility increases public perception on an organization, compatibility, SEO and legal implications were discussed in brief.

Ashwin shared his own experiences of different sites which are made Accessible and explained how it really helps. The team at Intuit appreciated the in-depth knowledge that Ashwin has on topics of Accessibility and invited him for next year session.

PRODUCT ENGINEERING COMPANY PRIORITIZES PEOPLE AND PRODUCES QUALITY RESULTS

Prakat Solutions Inc

6016 Annandale Dr
Fort Worth, Texas 76132

USA

(817)846-7541

http://prakat.com

Headline: Product Engineering Company Prioritizes People and Produces Quality Results

Fort Worth, TX - Businesses don’t grow and thrive when left completely on their own; they require care from many people, a dedicated customer base, and usually assistance from other companies who provide important services. While that last component often goes overlooked by customers, third party companies are an essential part of producing effective, intelligent, accessible services and products- especially in the world of software and product engineering and testing. That’s where Prakat Solutions Inc comes in.

As a product engineering company, it is Prakat’s goal to enhance and transform the quality of business for their clients. And while product engineering is a bit of a daunting unknown to those who are not directly involved in this world, Prakat spells their mission and services out plainly in helpful terms on their website, http://prakat.com. Essentially, this globally-involved company has great engineering abilities in the realms of software testing and product development, while also helping their clients improve their accessibility.

Prakat’s skilled team of engineers has expertise in product development for many different platforms, and they work closely with their clients to develop products primarily for internal usage by other businesses. Additionally, this company gives team and product access to certain long-term partner companies every step of the way because they really care about the person-to-person work relationship that has been lost in recent years within the product engineering industry.

Prakat also provides software testing services to clients, enabling those companies to give their customers the best possible experience when using their products. They strive to find the balance between attentive, flexible service and the efficient execution skills of outsourced high-level software vendors to give their clients optimal chance at success within any given company’s market. Another way Prakat gives clients a leg up on their competitors and shows genuine care for the lives they reach through their products and services is their focus on creating inclusive, accessible solutions. They specially formulate software applications to benefit those with disabilities and by doing so help to promote employment opportunities for an intelligent, talented community who are often overlooked in the professional world.  Prakat offers various training programs to educate and train individuals with disabilities on specific engineering and technical roles within the industry, thus creating an entirely new layer of the global workforce.

Prakat Solutions Inc, above all, aims to empower their employees, assist their clients efficiently to promote their own companies, and benefit greater society as a whole by playing their part in the cycle, educating and including the people they encounter along the way.

Contact Info:

[email protected]

Entrepreneur – The leader in the making

I had the opportunity to address the final year students of the A.P.S Engineering college. The journey of an entrepreneur is very unique, in the sense, every aspect of a person is put to test. But nevertheless, it is a journey and once it reaches its fulfillment, helps in building a nation providing livelihood to hundreds of thousands of people. As a nation matures, the only way forward to create employment to masses is to create more entrepreneurs and it is our responsibility to create the necessary eco-system to produce leaders. It is also important to make sure people who have walked this journey provide the necessary guidance and support.

So, I was thrilled to utilize this opportunity to provide the insights of my journey in creating Prakat solutions. Irrespective of the domain, the journey still remains the same. About 90 students of the final year students from various discipline signed up for the 2 day long camp that was put together by the college administration. I always feel such camps are the stepping stone in a person’s life to walk such a journey.

The session started with a unique presentation created by my team which set the tone for the session. The talk quickly turned into an Q&A session when the students started to engage with me questioning the hurdles and pitfalls of my journey.

An hour flew like few minutes before I had to hand over the stage to the next speaker. I personally feel these sessions are so important that it helps in motivating and inspiring the students to take the step of providing employment to others than just thinking about finding employment. This is the need of the hour to propel our nation to the next step – Creating next Leaders.

The talk concluded by inviting the students to experience this unique journey by devoting some time in Prakat Solutions. Prakat solutions has been created as a platform for grooming leaders providing them the necessary knowledge and skills to undertake individual’s journey to fulfill their vision.

Prakat in partnership with Pratian Technologies leap into IT corridor in Whitefield

Monday 11th September 2017 was a milestone for Prakat. Partnering with Pratian

Technologies we have now moved into the IT corridors of Whitefield.

Prakat began its journey in 2010 with a handful of people in the IT testing services.

The four people putting their trust behind Anu’s leadership, plunged into this startup.

Amidst a stiff competitive environment, Anu drawing her leadership skills from her

past experience in Infosys, skillfully captained the ship to pass every hurdle gracefully.

In a mere seven years, from four people she managed to grow the business to about

120 people and create a niche space in the software testing and accessibility space.

Her vision to carve out a space in the accessibility space has translated into hosting

the prestigious event – GAAD, for which Prakat is now one of the very few organizations

in India to put together a comprehensive action framework in the field of accessibility

development and testing services. As a woman entrepreneur, she has successfully

created a platform where different types of IT services are being experimented to

provide best solution to the clients. Through her hard work and perseverance, she has

managed to build and service clients across several verticals. Having been featured in

several media outlets, the government of Karnataka recognized her as one of the best

women entrepreneur in the state.

Today, it is a very proud moment for every employee of Prakat to become a part of the

space which is mostly inhabited by global IT companies. This clearly has put Prakat as a

global player which is sure to play a niche role in various verticals. Partnering along with

Pratian Technologies who are a pioneer in health care the knowledge hare and symbiotic

relation is sure to create a multiplier effect in the level of services that both the companies

are bound to offer to their clients.   

Having grown from the roots, the employees of both Prakat and Pratian are sure to make

India proud by contributing in the space of Digital India. In the years to come, both Prakat

and Pratian are surely poised to become one of the biggest employers in the technology

space.

With more than 20,000 square foot of space, the indicators are clear that there is no stopping….

Having captioned the Prakat ship for 7 years, the Prakat management is taking every step
to be innovative in its space, thereby preparing the employees to be ever ready for changes.
Investing lot of efforts in training and corporate management, Prakat has started the process
of grooming young leaders to take up responsibility to take the organization to new heights.

In this journey,
the management of Prakat, advisors and employees would like to take the opportunity to
thank everyone who have bestowed their trust in our services and helped us in every aspect
of our journey.

The new address of Prakat will be:

Prakat Technologies
185 & 185, Kundanahalli village, Whitefield,
opposite : UTC aerospace,
Bengaluru.

GAAD – Global Accessibility Awareness Day : Developing Technology for the disabled

You are cordially invited to the “GAAD -2017”, which will showcase interesting life stories of people with differently abled and technology innovators who have strived to find solutions to these
challenges.

This event promises to grip the audience with live stories of people who have re-invented
themselves after they lost hope due to their disability. It also will showcase various panel
discussion from Technology providers who are making the lives of differently abled more inclusive.
Some of the stars who will be a part of the event to support the cause:

 1) Rishab Shetty – Indian director and Actor, Kannada cinema
  2) Shekar Naik – Visually blind: Captain of Indian cricket team for the blind
  3) Aparna Athreya – Story teller
  4) Dr. Pratap (Pothole Raja) – Social activist, Bangalore
  5) Mr. Sunil Panwar I.F.S – Dir. EDCS : Dept. of E-Governance, Govt. of Karnataka
** Still more confirmations from people who support the cause are awaited.
The schedule of the event:
Day: Thursday, 18th May 2017
Time: 4.30 PM
Place: Nimhans Convention center, Bangalore
For further details contact:
[email protected]
+91 988 6262 029
www.gaad.in


About Prakat:
Prakat Solutions is a technology solutions company specializing in Independent Testing
Services, Test Advisory Services, Software Product Engineering and Accessibility Enablement.
Prakat’s mission is to make all technology accessible to people with disabilities.
www.prakat.com

About Mitra Jyothi
Mitra Jyothi is a registered trust (under Indian Trust Act) located at Bangalore and has been
working for people from all over the world with disability in general and visually impaired in
particular for the past 26 years.
www.mitrajyothi.org

About GAAD (Global Accessibility Awareness Day)
Global Accessibility Awareness Day is celebrated across the world on the 3rd Thursday in May
every year to create an awareness in making technology accessible and usable by persons with
disabilities. While people may be interested in the topic of making technology accessible and
inclusive, the reality is that they often do not know how or where to start, Awareness comes first.

The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital (web,software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion and people with different disabilities.