Envoc launches “Telepathy 2021” bridging the gap between two distant cultures

Posted on April 1, 2021June 17, 2024 by admin

April 1, 2021 Baton Rouge, LA – Software innovator, Envoc, today announced limited availability of its disruptive software targeted to improve communication between “product owners” and “dev teams.” Envoc Telepathy 2021 will bridge the gap between inter and intra-office cultures. Initially, the software was used internally to quell frustration flares between the project managers and software developers, but the company’s Product Owner, Amanda Alfaro sees other opportunities. “Before Envoc Telepathy, when developers and project managers would stare blankly at each other virtually over Zoom calls without making a peep, I knew the project was grinding to a halt. War was on. Now, when they stare blankly at each other, I know they’re communicating effectively.” Full-stack Developer, Weston Arnold continues the thought with the help of Envoc Telepathy, “Before Telepathy, the impact of ‘you just don’t get Javascript promises’ fell on deaf ears, now the associate developers can feel the impact of my true intent without the mincing of insults.”

Envoc Telepathy uses a modified and enhanced Wifi mesh with a bank of overclocked video cards, cloud-hosted AI, and an applied neural network for a constantly learning algorithm filling Big Data with human intentions. Matt Vidacovich attempted to explain the process of expressing, capturing, and analyzing mental intent through the airwaves, “Why mine Bitcoin when the thoughts and intentions of others are there for the taking?” He went on to a technical explanation but even the product itself, Envoc Telepathy, was not enough to capture an intelligible understanding.

Envoc eats its own dog food as it will use Envoc Telepathy in its software consulting and development practice. Indeed, Telepathy allows project managers and developers alike to understand client requirements with great clarity giving rise to accurate estimates, milestone expectations, and proper direction of blame for any missed delivery dates. “When a client realizes how much effort it will take to make all their buttons look like cumulus clouds, it saves us the agony of breaking it to them” notes software consultant, Ryan Craft. “I used to have to adjust my facial expressions, change my tone, and bite my tongue. Now I just wait for Telepathy to kick in.”

The company is working also on two add-on products for Telepathy. The “Envoc Morality” add-on is slated for release in Q3 2021 for working with attorneys and auto dealers. Morality contains ethical safeguards but comes at a hefty price. Those not able or willing to go with the full version of Morality can implement the lower-priced, “Envoc Scruples” for trivial engagements.

About Envoc

Envoc is a Louisiana-based software consulting, development, and hosting firm currently providing software programming, support, and application hosting services to commercial and governmental clients. For more information contact Calvin Fabre at (225) 910-8239 ext 101 or visit https://envoc.ciked.com.

The Envoc Agile Glossary

Posted on November 12, 2015June 29, 2024 by Calvin Fabre

It’s Envoc’s job to make sure you have a great experience in every phase of your project. One of the most important aspects of that is how well we communicate. You may not know it, but software developers and designers have their own vocabulary for the processes and technologies used throughout the life of a project. So, to help you understand that language and ensure we are always on the same page, we’ve compiled the Envoc Agile Glossary to help guide you through the terminology you’ll hear throughout your project.

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA

When writing a user story, you’ll help us define the Acceptance Criteria. These are the things that will determine the completeness and success in implementation of a user story. For example, if the user story states, “As an Administrator, I need the ability to log into the portal.” We’d define Acceptance Criteria as, “User must enter correct username and password to be properly validated and admitted into the portal.”

Our User Story defined the desired action. The Acceptance Criteria defined the parameters of success for the action.

AGILE

Agile is an iterative approach to software development defined by building software incrementally from the start of the project, instead of trying to deliver it all at once near the end. The focus with this approach is delivering high-quality, high-value code as soon as possible. What this means is that at Envoc, we (you and us) determine what code Envoc is going to work on for a two week period – then we develop it – then we show it to you in two weeks – then we (you and us) determine what we are going to develop the next two weeks. We don’t spend months writing documentation to define the software only to build the entire solution without your input.

BACK-END DEVELOPMENT

This is the portion of development that affects and determines storage, processes, business rules, and product intelligence. It is the non-viewable portion of the software. If we use a car as an analogy, it is the engine, transmission, axle, etc….things the user doesn’t see, but that makes the car go.

BASELINE USER STORY

When estimating the effort to complete a User Story, we first have to define a point of reference for that estimate. This is where a Baseline User Story comes into play. As a team, we define a User Story that is a conceptualized effort of 1. From there, we use that point of reference to define the difficulty of all User Stories for the project.

BURNDOWN CHART

This is a simple line graph that your Project Manager will use to estimate the end date for your project. It is based on your Product Backlog of Story Points compared to the Velocity your team is moving. So, for example, if your project has a remaining backlog of 100 Story Points and your team has a Velocity of 20 Story Points per iteration (usually 2 weeks), then your Project Manager can estimate that your project will finish in 5 iterations (10 weeks).

CONE OF UNCERTAINTY

When a software project starts, 30 years of studies have shown that the initial estimate of effort can vary by as much as 4x more or less because neither the estimator nor the client has fully defined the scope of the project. This potential variance in effort represents the Cone of Uncertainty. However, as we work through the project and know more and more about the scope of the project, our estimates will get better and better, reducing the uncertainty.

Envoc uses Agile Development as opposed to the old “waterfall” method. By using Agile, we tackle some of the bigger unknowns first and reduce the cone faster than is possible with waterfall. This allows us to provide more accurate estimates sooner.

Just for a reference, you’re probably used to seeing a cone of uncertainty, used with a different subject matter. Especially if you live on the Gulf/East Coast.

DESIGN COMP

After the functionality of your User Interface is defined, it’s time to make it pretty. Our Designers will take the wireframes we created and apply color, shading, textures, and pictures to create a work of art! These comps will be the basis for developing the actual working User Interface.

EPIC

An Epic is defined as multiple User Stories that are combined/grouped to represent a large feature or section of the project.

FRONT-END DEVELOPMENT

This is the portion of development that affects and determines the product UI. It is the viewable portion of the software. If we use a car as an analogy, it is the seats, steering wheel, body, etc….things the user sees and interacts with.

ITERATION

An iteration is a 1 to 4 week development cycle with defined project deliverables. For Envoc, we prefer 2 week iterations. Iterations are also additive in nature. That means, after one iteration, we might have basic functionality developed, and each week, as we use the product and you use the product, we refine it further and further. With this approach, you get to touch, see and feel your product early and often.

MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT

A product with the smallest amount of features that can still be released into production and provide value. By using an Agile approach to development, Envoc can get to your “MVP” much sooner than with a waterfall development approach.

PRODUCT ADVOCATE

This is you! You are essential to your project with us. As the Product Advocate, you are an authorized decision maker on the project. Your responsibilities include:

Attending all project iteration meetings
Managing the client effort throughout the life of the project
Helping to write and approve User Stories
Reviewing and providing timely feedback on Wireframes, Design Comps, and Development progress
Prioritizing User Stories for development
Helping to write and approving Acceptance Criteria
Accepting the finished product/features for release into production

PRODUCT BACKLOG

The Product Backlog is the total list of remaining User Stories and their associated User Points for your project. They are ordered based on priorities determined by you, the client.

SPIKE (or DEVELOPMENT SPIKE)

Occasionally we have clients ask us to estimate or execute something that has a lot of unknowns. In that situation, we may engage in a Spike. A Spike is a small set of predetermined hours that allows the developer to investigate the feature or product more fully to provide a solution, identify or mitigate risks, or provide a more accurate estimate.

STORY POINT

A unit of measurement that describes the estimated amount of effort or complexity a User Story will require to develop. Story Points are based off a Baseline User Story determined by the project team. Your project team will assign Story Point units to each User Story written for the project. This will help give the Project Manager and you an indication of complexity of the project/task and the time necessary to execute it.

TIME & MATERIALS ENGAGEMENT

This is a type of engagement that we offer to our clients. With this type of agreement, we will invoice you twice a month and only for the time used for your project during those time periods.

UI

Short for User Interface, the UI is the visible and interactive portion of the software.

USER STORY

This is how we’ll define your product. A User Story follows simple template/pattern:

As a [role], I need to [action] in order to [benefit].

By using this template, in a simple and succinct sentence, we’re able to define what the system or product should do all while explaining the value of that action. So, for example:

As an Administrator, I need the ability to disable user accounts in order to control access to the system.

VELOCITY

This is a representation of how fast we can provide deliverables. More specifically, it is the average amount of Story Points, and therefore User Stories, a team can complete in an iteration.

WIREFRAME

This is a simple, grayscale blueprint of the UI. It is not meant to show design elements, only navigation and layout. It allows you and your team to further discuss and define the actions of the user on the screen without any distraction from design elements.

Don’t Let the Quest for Perfect Ruin Good

Posted on April 9, 2015June 29, 2024 by Calvin Fabre

You have an idea, perhaps a brilliant business venture, a life-changing gadget you thought up, or a new app for your company. You are excited about the possibility of the project but you start getting stuck in the details of how exactly it should look and work. You try to anticipate every needed feature and function. You are trying to make the perfect project—stop!

It is easy to get caught up in the pursuit of perfection, mulling over the smallest details over and over without ever executing the project. After six months of planning and planning, we end up with nothing to show for it except a few documents, sketches, and prototypes. After twelve months you may have something useful and even good, but not perfect so you don’t launch—stop!

Many customers, clients, and coworkers need and will be satisfied with “very good.” Will you accept a dry cleaner that is very good or will you not wear clothes unless they are perfect? Will you accept a software application or website that is very good or will you abandon it because it is not perfect? No, you won’t.

Your project is no different. In your insistence and quest for “perfect” you deny from your customers, clients, and coworkers something that could be very good to them. You must continually ask yourself, “Is what I have created at this stage a usable product for someone and will it help them in some positive way?” If the answer is yes, launch it.

How Do You Overcome the Stagnation of Details?

It may sound scary, but we have a very clear solution. Launch early and often. There have been many instances where someone just went with a good idea and it took off to extreme success. Their initial launches weren’t perfect, or even aesthetically pleasing for that matter, but their good idea was more than enough. The fact that they did the work and put it in the public eye before anyone else had the same idea or application made a big difference in the success of the idea. The goal is to develop your project to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

Take SnapChat for example. The concept is simple: send and receive photo and video messages that disappear after 15 or so seconds. What makes SnapChat unique is that it capitalizes on the idea that some things we just don’t need (or want) to have a digital record of forever. So, when founders Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel had the idea, they didn’t waste any time in launching. SnapChat now boasts billions of messages sent a day. They even turned down Mark Zuckerberg’s offer to acquire the company. Facebook then launched a nearly identical app called Poke days later, but because SnapChat was the first to market, Poke didn’t make a dent (pun intended) in SnapChat’s success.

How about Plenty of Fish? Founder Markus Frind came up with a dating service that was different from the rest; it was free. Frind mastered the art of SEO and quickly grew from 40 members to 10,000 between March and November of 2003. Capitalizing on ad revenue early on, he is able to offer a free service to users while raking in $10 Million per year. Is another online-dating site revolutionary? Does the site have the best design? Has it changed much at all in over a decade? No. But it works. And it’s the #1 dating site in the US, UK, and Canada.

And then there’s the ultimate “good” not “perfect” MVP example: Craigslist. Brilliantly simple, what started as a way to post upcoming arts and music events in San Francisco quickly evolved into the online classifieds forum we know today. It looks the same as it did in 1995. And it’s not the prettiest thing to look at. But it does its job, and we all use it.

What’s the Best Process to Get to the MVP?

Okay, so you’re ready to dig in and get to work. You’ve got an idea for an application for your company but you don’t know where to start.

Where to begin? Enter Agile, a methodology we at Envoc use to develop our custom software and websites. Its whole premise is based on action: breaking the work down into phases and handing in deliverables every two weeks. Planning is executed on the deliverable at hand. Instead of spending a few thousand dollars planning for seven months without any product to show for it, Agile gets you developing the product immediately, refining, revising, and planning for the features as they are executed. You have deliverables every two weeks, which allows you to adapt, overcome, and respond. In this style of delivery, you can work toward a MVP that makes and keeps users happy. See this great visual of the difference between questing for perfect, and delivering a viable product:

The idea isn’t perfect from the get-go? No problem. Agile not only anticipates change, it expects it. Changing, adding, or even dropping features is expected and does not result in a trip back to the drawing board.

So don’t be scared. We’ll walk you through it. We have an in-house, Addy Award-winning graphic department that creates all the branding and graphics needed to make your customer-facing site or internal application beautiful and eye-catching (it won’t look like Craigslist.) Plus, we’ve got a stellar team of developers here to create the piece of software that, at this point, you’ve only dreamt about.

What are you waiting for?

How Software Allowed Me to be the Mom I Wanted to Be

Posted on March 26, 2015June 17, 2024 by admin

Lizzie Broussard is a working mother of two. She in no way means for this blog to stand as a way for all moms to live their life. She is merely offering up her experience to the other moms out there to share her story.

There’s a time in every woman’s life when she starts to think about motherhood. For some women, it’s in their early 20s. For others, it’s not until they hit 35. For me, I always knew I wanted to be a mom. Finishing up high school and choosing my major for college, I thought, what career would allow me to be a good mom? What career could I leave for a period of time to raise my kids and come back to? Unable to answer those questions, I just picked my passion – English Literature – and resolved to figure out the mom dilemma later. After all, I was 19 and nowhere near ready to have kids.

After college, I happened to fall into my first job in the software world as a Quality Assurance Analyst – or tester. Although I spent the past four years analyzing literature, quickly I realized how much I loved the software world. I learned quickly and learned to love it even more quickly. Everything was constantly changing and innovating. There was tons of room for creativity and passion. The industry was young and so was I. Again, I thought about how I’d manage kids in a job like this, but didn’t spend too much time thinking about it. After all, I was 23 and kids were a long way off.

Through the years, as I made a place for myself in the software world, moving from tester to specification writer to project manager, I realized just how flexible the software world was, but also how solitary the work can be. Nearly 90% of my job is accomplished behind a computer screen, by myself. So in 2011, at 27, when I had my first daughter, I knew I could ask for flexibility in my position as opposed to leaving the workforce altogether. First, I didn’t want to quit working. Remember all those things I said about the software industry above? They still stood years later. I loved my job and I really loved working. But I also wanted to be home with my daughter. I didn’t want to “miss it all.” So, unlike any of my other coworkers at the time, I asked my boss for a flexible schedule. I’d still work 40 hours a week, but one week I’d be in the office for two days; the following week, I’d be in for three. This would allow me to attend meetings, keep a presence at the office, and work with my developers, all while having lazy mornings with my daughter, play dates with friends, and cuddle sessions in the middle of the day. It was the best of both worlds.

Now, I won’t say it was easy. I had to work hard to make it work. There were late nights clocking hours and early mornings getting things done. But I did it. And I loved it. I got the best of both worlds—mommyhood at home and work life in the office.

Then I met Calvin. I was looking for a new job and I caught wind that he was open to flexible schedules. This was of utmost importance to me. I knew the software industry leant itself to working at home; I just needed to find an employer that felt the same way. During my interview with him, I was going on and on about how I could be available 24/7 for this job. I’d work from can’t see to can’t see just as long as I could still have a flexible schedule. Then Calvin said something I thought I’d never hear an employer say.

“Do you think you work too much? Wouldn’t you like to work a little less?”

I think my jaw hit the ground. Calvin was not only asking me to work for him to help him build his company, but he was asking me to spend more quality time with my daughter—not always worrying about getting my 40 hours in. I don’t think it’s hard for you to imagine that I gave the most enthusiastic “YES!” when Calvin offered me the job at Envoc.

Now I work 30 hours a week. I’m in the office three days a week and at home two. Wednesdays and Fridays are still special for me. I get to do all the fun things with my daughter in the middle of the week and beat the weekend crowds at places like the mall and play yards. We go to the park, play at splash pads, and meet up with friends. The rest of the week, I work hard, but I love it—so it’s not really work at all. Best of all, my bosses know that just because I’m not in the office every day, it doesn’t diminish the work that I do or compromise the projects I manage. Most of all, I’m not seen as a “part-time employee.” I feel like I contribute to the company in a real and meaningful way each and every day.

And 10 weeks ago, my life just got a little more interesting with the birth of my second daughter. Right now, both girls are fast asleep in bed while I get a little work done at my dining room table. In all my wildest dreams I never thought I’d be able to have such a fulfilling work and home life balance. Without the flexibility and innovation spearheaded by the software industry, I know I wouldn’t be able to have such an amazing work arrangement. And that’s how software has allowed me to be the mom I’ve always wanted to be.

Looking for a new career?

The Making of “The Obots”

Posted on March 24, 2015June 17, 2024 by admin

Every designer knows that clever, conceptual work doesn’t just happen. That simple abstract logo doesn’t just come to us, neither does that crazy, detailed illustration. We get there through trial and error. We look for inspiration wherever we can get it, and try out all of our ideas, with different techniques. If one mockup doesn’t work, we move on to the next.

That’s why I’m a strong believer in doodling. Putting pen to paper and simply making strokes can get the creative juices flowing. It will eventually help the ideas to flow, too. That’s how I like to start all of my designs. If I don’t have an initial idea, I start scribbling and something will usually pop up. If that doesn’t work, I then turn to other sources of inspiration, like Pinterest or going for a walk. If even that doesn’t work, then I have to try something new.

This is the process I followed when I designed my first logo for one of our clients. I had an initial idea in mind, but it just wasn’t working. I was drawing a creative blank. Literally. Instead of getting frustrated with myself, I decided to stop thinking about the logo, and I started doodling again. I drew whatever came into my mind, and I had fun with it. This is where Mike Envocski came in.

Mike Envocski

When I’m doodling, I tend to think about what I’ve seen lately to help me just start drawing. In this case, I was thinking about office surroundings. That morning, when I was pouring myself some coffee, I noticed how awesome our mug collection was. My favorite was a Monsters Inc. mug shaped like the character Mike Wazowski. I was also thinking about how unique the Envoc name was. The macron “ō” had an interesting shape to me. With these two things in mind, I made a quick doodle of Mike Envocski.

How did this help with the billable work I was stuck on?

Because of my creative block, I had to lessen my frustration. I needed to just make something cool and be more comfortable trying out new ideas. After I drew Mike, I was more creatively free to try new concepts, and I was able to deliver better logo mockups to a happy client. Plus, I had some doodles that were funny, and that never hurts.

The First Obot

When I showed the Envoceans Mike Envocski, they thought it was funny, too. They wanted it to become the Envoc mascot. I thought that was an awesome idea, but we knew we couldn’t have a mascot similar to a Pixar character. Someone suggested that we make robot mascots instead, since we live the tech life. That’s when the very first Obot was created.

Designing the Obot Family

Working collaboratively, we decided that this little guy needed some friends, and started sketching more robots in all shapes and sizes. While we were sketching, we were coming up with ideas for how we could use these robots. We didn’t want to create something cool without sharing it. After consideration, we thought it would be fun to use them during the holidays and make illustrations to post on social media for everyone to enjoy.

When we had a good idea of what we wanted the obots to look like, I began creating their skeletons in Adobe Illustrator. I wanted to make sure each of their shapes were interesting and unique, so I tried different things out for each one. After I had their shapes down, I started bringing them to life with the Envoc brand colors.

When I drew the first robot, I made him a little more dopey. Because they are usually smart, it was fun to imagine a not-so-bright, knuckle-dragging caveman of robots. I followed through with this personality when deciding on his color.

When I think of robots, I usually think of The Jetsons. I loved that show growing up. It influenced the second Obot’s design and personality. Because I had the dopey obot already, I wanted to contrast that by creating an obot that was smarter, more evolved, and a bit feminine. This Obot’s color changed to purple later on because we wanted to use all of Envoc’s brand colors and give it more femininity.

The third robot was an exploration more into the “dark side” of the Obots. Since the first two robots had nice demeanors, we had to add some conflict. No family is perfect, right? When designing this one, I was influenced by some of the big-headed villains I’ve seen in comic books. The idea of a tiny villain is just hilarious, and it’s fun to use in illustrations.

The last Obot that was designed was the hardest one. We knew we wanted one of them to look like the macron “ō” within the Envoc name. So, I worked off what I already had for Mike Envocski, and I started turning him into a fun-loving robot. This one became the leader of the bunch.

Naming the Obots

Once we finished developing the Obots and their personalities, we printed some swag stickers, and we had some fun creating holiday illustrations, like the 2014 Christmas microsite. Our social media fans were enjoying it, too. At this point, we didn’t have any names for them yet. It was hard for us to decide amongst ourselves, so we chose to let social media decide. We picked 5 names for each Obot, and we created short animations to show their different personalities. People could then vote on their favorite name for each Obot through Facebook or Twitter. To give them some incentive, we gave away swag stickers to those who voted the most. Finally, they had their names: DOM, Watson, Vector, and Sprocket.

We still use the Obots to market Envoc in a fun and lighthearted way, and their personalities continue to develop through the holiday illustrations. From what we’ve done so far:

Vector is usually up to something.
Watson is always having some fun.
Sprocket is usually helping everyone out in some way.
DOM is always a little clueless.

Keep an eye out in our next illustrations, and you’ll notice these things playing out.

What I Learned

Looking back now, I learned an important lesson when designing the Obots. You can’t be a designer with a fear of the new. If I didn’t decide to take a step back and try something different with that logo design, I wouldn’t have created something better, I wouldn’t have those silly doodles that turned into the Obots, and we wouldn’t have won an Addy for them.

My advice to any designer with a massive creative block like the one I had is this: just make stuff. Keep trying new sources of inspiration. It may not work out the first time, and it may be outside your comfort zone. No worries. It’s worth it. You never know what you might end up with.

User Experience vs. User Interface

Posted on March 11, 2015June 29, 2024 by admin

With the rise of User Interface design, there has been some confusion about the difference between it and User Experience design. Both are important when designing an application or website, but each brings a different aspect to the finished product.

User Interface: how the user and a computer system interact, particularly the use of input devices, visual controls, gestures, and software.¹

User Experience: the overall experience of a person using a product such as a website or computer application, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use.²

Many times, User Experience design is confused with User Interface design because of how closely they work together, so to explain both and the differences between the two, I’m going to tell a story.

The Journey to the Door

Once upon a time, there was a small town in the shadow of a mountain. The land was used up and desolate, so the people of the town had to travel to their neighboring towns to get food each week. This was a special town because in the mountain that shadowed the town was a door. This door was the entryway to a magical world that was rumored to have a magical power to grow things that were planted in the ground with a snap of a finger. Everyone wanted to explore the world but the door was high on the edge of a cliff and there was no path to get to the door. One day three people decided they would try everything they could to get to the door, so they gathered all their plans and ideas, and each began his or her journey to the door.

The first person decided to climb the mountain from the bottom up to the door, but on the first day had to turn back because he got a hole in his shoe.

The second person decided to take the long path on the far side of the mountain and repel down the cliff to the door. When he made it halfway down the cliff, he realized he didn’t pack enough rope so he had to turn back.

The third person decided to build a beautiful staircase up to the door so he could come and go as he needed, so he hired a team to come help him build his staircase to the door. When he made it through he found a place in the magical land to plant his garden. As soon as the seeds were planted – SNAP – all the seeds instantly grew into full plants covered with fruit and vegetables. The town rejoiced and never had to leave town for food again.

Journey to the Door: Explained

This is a story about the different experiences of three other people.

The first person never checked his gear, so he wasn’t prepared for the journey and had a bad experience.

The second person checked his gear but didn’t know how much rope he would need, so the gear was right, but his lack of planning negatively affected his experience.

The third person took his time and built a way to get to the top without interacting with the mountain. This provided a better experience not only for himself but also for anyone who wanted to get up to the door.

All three deserve credit for designing a trip; each had a user experience and developed a user interface to help them accomplish the journey. Two of them failed because the user interface (shoes, rope, etc.) didn’t fit the task at hand, which made them have a poor user experience and caused them to give up. The third not only considered the user interface (mountain, stairs, etc.) but considered the future users’ experience and came up with a good user experience for the town’s people to easily make the trip to the door without having to take long journeys each week.

Simply put, User Interfaces are the tools a person uses to accomplish a task or set of tasks, and User Experience is how a person feels when using those tools.

Wrap Up

Simply put, User Interfaces are the tools a person uses to accomplish a task or set of functions, and User Experience is how a person feels when using those tools. Based on this definition and the story, we can see that anyone can design a trip (an interface and an experience). However, only the design that accomplishes the goals and considers all aspects will let the user experience something magical.

Are you in need of the proverbial staircase to the magical door?

¹“Google Definitions: User Interface.” Google Search. 3 March, 2015.

²“Google Definitions: User Experience.” Google Search. 3 March, 2015.

Competitors: With Whom do we Compete?

Posted on August 26, 2014June 29, 2024 by Calvin Fabre

We Believe in More Pie

Business Schools tell us to study them. “Study your competitors, try to overcome them, try to do one or two things better than them so as to gain market share,” they preach. This is a “scarcity thinking” mentality. That is, we believe there is a fixed amount of “market” and we all want to get a bigger share of it.

Scarcity and Abundance Thinking

Steven Covey coined the ideas of “Scarcity and Abundance” mentalities. He writes, “The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit—even with those who help in the production. They also have a a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people.”

Covey continues, “The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.” At Envoc, we are not “scarcity” thinkers, but “abundant” thinkers.

If Envoc is truly an Abundance-thinking company, then you won’t find us battling to share the pie that is called “market share,” you will find us battling to create more pie. One reason we call our creatives, “creative” is that they “create.” They don’t “rearrange” what exists, nor do they “acquire,” “takeover,” or “commandeer”—we create more creative pie. After one month of Envoc creatives crafting their designs, we have not stolen any market share, but rather, the world is 31 designs richer in market share than it was before.

Who is our Competitor?

In our eyes, our prospect’s indecision is our true competitor—not some other company with whom our prospect is comparing us to or who is battling us for market share. That is, we believe our clients have three options under consideration for their project: a) Do the project themselves, b) don’t do the project at all or c) work with Envoc to do the project. We don’t mention, think of, or bring up our competitors unless our client does. If they do, we acknowledge the existence of the competitor and praise them as a good company, but that is not why we are around the table in the conference room. Our strategies are belief, values and “better reality” driven. So, “who is our competitor?” It really doesn’t matter.

Why We Don’t Offshore and Why You Shouldn’t Either

Posted on June 16, 2014June 29, 2024 by Calvin Fabre

Every week, we receive multiple calls from offshore companies offering software development services for as low as $11 an hour. Does the huge profit margin seem tempting? Maybe—but we turn them down every time. Here’s a few reasons why:

We Can’t Guarantee the Work

Envoc builds relationships with our clients and delivers experiences around design and software at an extremely high standard, every time. And while we can guarantee that standard for ourselves, we cannot guarantee it for anyone else working on a client’s project far, far, away. Envoceans are passionate, highly skilled, degreed, and/or licensed professionals with formal education and industry experience who have been vetted and continually trained. We know they are more than qualified to do the task at hand, so why would we trust someone else with our reputation and our client’s deliverables? We don’t and we won’t.

We Want to Sleep at Night

If you have not built a trusted relationship with someone, why would you trust them to build your bridges, provide air traffic control, write software that flies airplanes, process your payroll, or have access to your most valuable business trade secrets? Using outsourced resources increases security and privacy concerns while introducing anxiety and doubt. By using our own resources and knowing that our products are built the right way, we don’t have to worry about incurring Technical Debt or unforeseen legal issues. And we can sleep soundly as a result.

We Use Both Sides of our Brain

Much more right-brain work goes into creative services like branding, graphic and web design, user-interface design, quality assurance, and project management of software than just raw left-brained manpower for coding. Our Envoceans need and use the very best training, tools, and environment. Envoc invests heavily in training courses, materials, and conferences. We pay thousands of dollars each month for our legitimate software tools that are legally licensed, and we provide the very best collaborative and isolated work environments for our team and clients so that face-to-face meetings and secluded “zone-times” are as productive as possible.

We Don’t Pirate Software

Could we cut costs by pirating operating system software, development software licenses, and graphic assets? Could we pass on Professional Liability insurance and business taxes? We sure could, and many companies do to offer much better rates—but, again, we like to sleep at night knowing we are doing the right thing by our vendors and the great State of Louisiana in which we operate. Have you ever wondered how an offshore company can offer you a $15 per hour rate for software development? Do you have an idea why now?

We Speak the Language

When our clients tell us they want to “Put the Pedal to the Metal,” put a “Full Court Press” on a project, “Cover our Bases” or even “I want you all over this project like a Bad Perm” we know what their idioms and figures of speech mean and nothing is lost in translation. This may not always be the case when working with an overseas firm. Additionally, having 7:00pm conference calls during dinner time doesn’t help the home-life. As in a marriage, timing and communication is key. We like to think we are in a loving, committed relationship with our clients. Envoc’s definition of “Love” is “a commitment of our wills to the true good of our team and clients.”

Triage Available

Has your company or project been adversely affected by an outsourced or overseas engagement? If so, we would be happy to review the project and help you correct any critical issues or help you a plan to pay down the accrued technical debt. You can reserve a 30-minute appointment on Calvin’s schedule, by chatting with us, or by calling us at (225) 384-5549. We will personally triage your situation. If you want to keep the conversation to less than an hour, do not bring up politics or 80s hair bands.

Envoc Branding: A History

Posted on May 20, 2014June 29, 2024 by Calvin Fabre

Envoc Branding: A History

Trust us, Envoc didn’t always look this good. In fact, the new Envoc brand evolved over several years before landing on what it is today. It was a slow (and sometimes painful) process, but it was worth it. We finally have a brand that speaks to our diverse expertise and brings us into the modern tech and design world. As a huge bonus, we’re finally proud to show it off on our new website without having to disclaimer it with “just wait, we’re building a better one.” In this blog post, we are going to take you behind the scenes to see the good, the bad, and the in-between stages of building our better brand.

Envoc: an Idea

Let’s go back. Way back. Back to when Envoc was just a thought in our CEO, Calvin’s mind. He had established High Power Consulting as a software consulting company — which had its success.. But Calvin wanted more than just to consult—he wanted a true partnership with clients that would allow for collaboration as well as education. The word “invoke” is defined as “to call on for support or inspiration,” which is exactly what we wanted our clients to be encouraged to do. And thus, with a little twist to the spelling of the word, Envoc came to be.

Envoc 1.0

We were primarily a development/tech/software shop in the beginning, and the first Envoc logo gave us a great starting point. The colors and sans-serif type spoke to the tech industry at the time, and the tagline “a better reality” gave our brand its purpose for us internally and more importantly, for our clients. This first iteration established us as a company, but was not fully refined—yet.

Envoc 2.0

Fast forward three years and Calvin had yet another brilliant idea. What if we could take the power of software development and pair it with beautiful interfacing? Enter the Marriage of Maxon Media, a creative design firm, to Envoc. With the addition of designers into the mix, the first Envoc logo needed to be revisited. With a fine-toothed typographic comb, the next iteration was a tightened-up version of the original. The kerning (an industry term for the spacing between letters) was adjusted, and the proportion of the logotype to tagline was altered as well. It was more of what we like to call in the industry, a “logo refresh,” and not a full redesign.

Other than the logo and a few letterhead templates, there still was very little branding that had been established. A logo is not a brand. Who the company IS, is its brand. This new chapter in Envoc’s history was still new, and we were still learning who Envoc was (we’ll just call this the teen years). The Envoc brand needed more thought and care than it had ever had before.

Concept Time, Back to the Drawing Board

After the creative Envoceans were nice and settled into the groove of the development environment, they went to work on concepting. Hard. There were several ideas that were tossed around, and even “a civil war” over the macron (the line over the “o” in the logo) broke out briefly. It was a rough time. None of the concepts seemed to fit Envoc just right.

Finally, the ideas started to come together for there to be a representation of not what we do, but who we are. We realized that what sets us apart is the wide variety of skillsets under one roof, all coming together to make beautiful and functional products. The concept of “the prism” stuck. Multi-faceted and visually dynamic, the prism scheme represented our team perfectly. We went to work hunting down reference images that would serve as an inspiration to the budding brand.

Building the Brand

We then started drawing with pencil and paper shapes that could be used with this idea. And they were terrible. So, we called on our resident genius, Matt Vid, to help us build an interactive tool we could use to make the shapes we were longing for to make our branding dreams a better reality (how very Envoc of us…).

Bringing it All Together

With a way to execute our “prisms” perfectly, we were finally on the road to something big. Next was color. We developed a broad color palette, with our green and blue being primary and adding in several complementary colors that would represent our diverse abilities. Once these colors were applied to the prisms, the result was a thing of beauty.

With a beautiful backdrop in place, we were ready to finalize the new logo. We kept the blue and green from the original Envoc logo and pumped up the saturation so the colors would pop. We updated our logotype font to the much-more modern and web-friendly “Geogrotesque,” perfected the typographic nuances, and voila. We had the new face of the company.

We Have Standards, People!

Finally, we had some pieces to work with. As with any of our branding projects for clients require, we made our own brand book that outlined specifics for using the various pieces. We have standardized the typography, logo usage (including what NOT to do), color usage, and how to use other elements that are brand-appropriate, like icons and patterns. The brand book ensures that the elements are always used properly, consistently, and appropriately. We want to make sure we have the same message going out in any of our branded material.

Like we mentioned earlier, a company’s brand is so much more than just the visuals. It is behind everything a company is, does, and even says. That’s why we wrote out a document defining Envoc’s Voice and Tone as well. Think of it as a standards manual for any writing that is sent out through Envoc, be it blog posts, emails, newsletters, social media posts, and the like. It is so important that a company has a consistent “voice” that can become as easily identifiable as their logo. The “voice” is the “person” that Envoc is.

Apply that Brand All Over

Now that we had our visuals and persona standardized, we were ready to rock and roll. Business cards, mousepads, desktop backgrounds, social media pages… everything we could get our hands on we re-designed using the new brand as a driving force.

Website FTW

After all of this, we were ready to take on the biggest internal project of them all: the company website. The new envoc.com is the crowning jewel of our new brand (and, as you can tell, our pride and joy) and we are mighty proud of it. Another long and enduring process, but one that was more than worth it. After we launched it in early April, we finally felt that the new Envoc had matured and was ready for the all to see.

Fin.

For some reason, it’s almost more difficult to design for your own company than for a client’s. Maybe it’s because you have complete control and feel such a personal connection to it that you won’t stop until everything is perfect. We definitely had our struggles and put in tons (hundreds?) of hours, but having a brand that fits exactly who we are makes us proud to be a part of it.

We hope that you have enjoyed reading about how our brand came to be what it is today. If your brand needs some love (or needs to exist), we would love to talk to you about it. Invest in your brand. Spend the time. It is so important.