Custom Software Development Services

"In my professional career, I have been involved with many product development activities in different verticals from developing mission critical flight software for the International Space Station, to providing wireless telecommunication technologies, Augmented Reality solutions, or Software as a Service platform for Digital Signage industries.

I can say without any doubts that none of these projects that I have been a part of failed or succeeded because of the technology choices, or technology issues, or infrastructure or platform related issues.

The challenges have always been related to prioritization, process, communication, decision making, inspiration, motivation, corporate culture, and overall company energy issues. These are Leadership issues.

I do believe that by addressing leadership issues in software companies, the industry will elevate itself and the path to innovation will increase dramatically, with better results.

Zema Group, Inc. has Trademarked “Leadership as a Service™” and IMAGINE ALWAYS™ to fundamentally change the approach and the focus in developing technology products in software companies.

Everyone at Zema Group assumes the role of a leader. We treat our customers as partners and our employees as colleagues.

This is what we do.”

Dr. Zarik Boghossian is an international keynote speaker on kindness, optimism, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Imagination.

Dr. Zarik Boghossian have spoken frequently on the topic of IMAGINE ALWAYS™ in US, China, Brazil, and Armenia, including many universities globally.

Every company is different therefore lifecycle development processes must be tailored specific to company needs and growth phase and honestly corporate culture.

One of the reasons that some of the early stage start-ups fail, is not because of funds or lack of a bad idea, but most often it is because they do not know how to run a start-up company. Yes, almost every time some of the leaders on the top are repeat entrepreneurs who have had some prior experience in starting a venture, but how about everyone else who is joining the company? Almost in all cases most employees are joined without having knowledge or an expectation of how a startup is run. This is a major issue.

We have developed a program called LEARN ALWAYS™ which focuses on training the entire organization to think like a start-up, act like a start-up, execute like a start-up, and have fun like a start-up.

This program can be presented in classes, seminars or workshops.

Our capabilities also include:

• Skills for Success
• Strategic and Business Planning
• Growth and Expansion Consultation
• General Consultation
• Coaching and mentoring
• Company culture development

With years of executive leadership experience in technical and operational positions, Zema Group, Inc. is a qualified candidate to fill in these roles on an interim basis. Our goal is to provide this interim leadership to mitigate chaos, maintain order, and to run the company as best possible until a replacement is found.

Setting up an offshore development and test center is not an easy task, and majority of these centers end up failing, because they are not well thought out. There are many elements in establishing offshore centers, some of which are: Availability of skill sets, cultural issues, geographical issues, logistical issues, economy issues, political issues, project communication issues, and loyalty issues.

We have setup such centers in different parts of the world since 2005. Some succeeded and some failed, and as a result we have learned plenty about our approaches. Offshoring can be a disaster if not done right, but it could also mean your competitive edge against others if done right. We can do it right.

We know how to do it. You cannot approach this as a cost cutting measure, rather an extension of your development team with outstanding skill sets. The cost advantages will be assumed if we do this right.

Our sweet spot is to setup centers for development and testing for a full life cycle software development projects. We usually suggest that a core team be in charge of the architecture and User Interface design elements for these projects, but all design, development, testing, and documentation should be done offshore. We have expertise in .NET and Java based technologies and feel very comfortable about starting and finishing on time, with highest quality and with the budget promised.

We assess your organization’s health from the perspective of people, culture, process, technology infrastructure, operations, and many other elements that constitute a company. We then make cost effective and practical restructuring recommendations that are designed for your organization. We do not have cookie-cutter solutions because every company is different and therefore must be treated differently. Our focus always starts with people and then continues with process, technology, and operations.

This is how we do it:

• Self-Assessment – To be conducted by your team to collect data
• Review – We focus on work, products, estimates, tasks, designs, standards, source code, and test cases
• Interviews – We conduct interviews with key personnel to validate information
• Report Creation – We provide our findings in a detailed report
• Report Presentation – We present our recommendation for implementation

At the end of an Organizational Assessment you will have:

• Observations on your core competencies
• Observation on your weaknesses
• Discussion on current challenges impeding your ability to produce
• Prioritized recommendations for the new practices and organizational changes
• Roadmap to implement change cost effectively and efficiently

We provide expert, and honest assessment of your software projects to identify the good things about your project and the bad things about your project. We will then make a recommendation and create a project roadmap to ensure successful completion of your projects.

As part of our value system enforced by our CEO, we believe that if you are not serious about assessing your projects in order to implement effective changes, then you should not embark on this journey. It is true that we will make our money and will move on to the other companies, but as a professional consulting firm, our goal is to make an impact for good, rather than be another report on your In-Basket. Think about this before you start.

We address the following questions:

• Will this project be completed with the projected budget and timeline?
• What practices and methodologies will work best for the project?
• Will this project scale and perform as the system scales?
• Will this project have the quality that meets customer expectations?

Zema Group, Inc. partners with Venture Capital firms and offers consultation at any stage with the due diligence and implementation process of their new venture.

We focus on the following core components to assess the value for the venture:

Many companies have great ideas and ground breaking value propositions, but often these ideas never get realized primarily because of fundamental leadership and people related issues. We know how difficult it is to nurture an idea and as a code of professional conduct, we feel obligated to help our colleagues to nurture these ideas and go through a full implementation and commercialization process.

Our capabilities include:

• Organizational Leadership and Development
• Creating A+ teams
• Growth and Expansion Consultation
• Creating a fun and rewarding environment
• Process Design
• Technology Evaluation
• Change Management
• Human Capital
• Mentoring and Training
• Improving communication and Revitalization
• Human relations