Aithent, a leading global SEI CMM Level 5 software-consulting firm, builds, develops, and deploys technology solutions to assist its global clients in streamlining and simplifying their complex business processes. Aithent's Global Sourcing model establishes continuous production cycles and ensures short delivery cycles by taking advantage of the different time zones in the global markets. True to its adage of innovating evolution, Aithent fosters a unique 4+1 development approach to create robust software solutions that address the needs of today and provide an answer to the demands of tomorrow. The 4+1 approach can be translated into discovering, designing, developing and deploying with the added edge of the vast technological experience the company has gathered over the years.
Strategic alliances with global IT leaders allow Aithent to have access to technologies that shape the future. Aithent is a member of Linux Consortium, Japan. Aithent Chennai is totally dedicated for the development of Open Source Software.
Aithent considers Open Source software to be of higher quality, since the Open Source development model ensures independent peer review and rapid evolution of both design and source code. By having the source code available, it is possible to perform a thorough inspection and verify the correctness of the algorithm and the implementation scheme used. Users are allowed to customize everything they find appropriate to suit their needs. Aithent Open Source software releases usually occur when the software is ready with minimum expected functionalities, which leads to more reliable and good quality software. This means that software usually does not need as many service packs and updates, reducing the maintenance cost. Anyone can submit bug fixes, security patches, and the like. This means that bugs get fixed faster, programs are more secure, and, in general, as a program matures, Open Source softwares of Aithent are of higher quality, reliability and modularity.
Aithent visualizes reduced risk and speedy development in Open Source. The availability of source code and the freedom to make changes give Open Source softwares, an unparalleled control over the tools they depend on. Unreasonable price increases, unacceptable licensing restrictions and vendor demise or acquisition, no longer have the impact they used to. There is no single entity on which the future of the software depends, as Open Source effectively protects the usability of a software product by not relying much on a single software manufacturer for upgrades and continued development. There is always the possibility of forking, or creating an alternative code base, if the current one is in some way perceived as wrongly managed, and there is no unilateral restriction in which the software is used.
With Open Source projects, Aithent incurs lower overhead because of unpaid, outsourced work and there is a significant reduction in per-project software production costs. No per-copy fee is generally asked for modified versions, and anyone can use the current code base to start new projects. Working knowledge is gathered at a minimal cost. People trying new technologies are able to integrate and adopt Aithent Open Source softwares immediately, without the hurdles of commercial or non-disclosure license agreements. Because of the increasing user reluctance to continue upgrading their software, and hence their hardware, meaning extra cost, Aithent offers lower-cost business solutions through its range of Open Source softwares. Since most Open Source are available for a nominal cost, organizations can consider spending the capital where it matters most, realizing the business proposition.
One of the most important aspects of Aithent practices is closeness to the customer. In the short-product-cycle business climate, it is more important to understand what the customers want and to rapidly respond to those needs. Aithent Open Source methodology resembles the most successful consumer product development where you get a product to market that works, and iterate quickly based upon customer feedback to reach the combination of features that the customers need and want. Aithent finds that Open Source is the upcoming software development and distribution paradigm, which is closer to the customers who use the product.
Aithent Open Source has the justified reputation for fixing problems incredibly quickly, mostly within hours of its discovery and in developing secure software, which is crucial to the success of any enterprise in avoiding hacking vulnerabilities. Aithent senses Open source as extremely effective in using mailing lists, news groups and web-based forums, which are critical both during development and in the day-to-day running of services, since it is quite likely that questions will be answered by the developers themselves or at least by people who use the product every day.
An important side effect of the Open Source model will be a much wider platform range for Aithent’ products. Open Source authors frequently find themselves receiving, for free, port changes for operating systems and environments they barely know exist. Each such port, of course, widens the market appeal of the product. Open Source can be cloned without violating support agreements. This saves Aithent considerable amounts of time and effort in installations. As connectivity increases with the Internet, and computer power increases exponentially, more and more weight accumulates on Open Source software development.
Currently, Aithent is working on an Open Source project, Sales Management System (SMS), which is a part of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that helps management in identifying prospective clients, sales targets and high probability opportunities. Aithent has developed File Management System (FMS) using open source technologies.
