AMMAN, Jordan, Jun. 7, 2022 — Aspire, the Jordan-based IT services firm with pioneering software engineering, quality assurance and network operations center support capabilities, has commemorated its 20th anniversary by launching a technology consulting practice.
This was announced during an event- held under the patronage of Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Ahmad Hanandeh.
The event was attended by distinguished industry and business leaders; a host of Aspire team members; and local and regional media representatives, according to a statement from Aspire.
Building on two decades of delivering services for omnichannel software and product development; digital transformation (Agile, Cloud and DevOps); quality engineering and testing; infrastructure support; and bespoke software and mobile engineering, Aspire has now added digital consulting services to its offerings.
These new services include digital strategy and enterprise architecture consulting; tech sourcing advisory; strategic management; and emerging technology advisory in cyber security consulting, intelligent automation, data and analytics, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity; among others- bringing 20 years of extensive experience within the US market to enable clients across Jordan and the region to accelerate their digital transformation journeys, said the statement.
“This occasion is one of celebration when we pause, reflect and express our heartfelt gratitude towards our clients across the globe and the hundreds of incredibly talented, motivated and dedicated Aspirers without whom these successes would not have been possible. This also signals the start of the next phase of growth for Aspire as we reinvent ourselves as a full-service technology company committed to strengthening the tech capabilities of our clients throughout Jordan, the region and the world – whatever their business challenges may be – and empowering them to shine within the digital sphere,” commented Aspire Founder and Managing Director Kaushal Shah.
Aspire And UiPath Announce Strategic Partnership To Empower Organizations With Intelligent Automation
In response to changing market trends, Aspire continues to expand its digital ecosystem of technologies to deliver the best-in-class digital solutions to our clients. We partner with strategic and dynamic software leaders who share our vision for a more integrated future.
Aspire announces a strategic partnership with RPA software provider UiPath. The partnership serves to combine Aspire’s Intelligent Automation consulting and implementation offerings with UiPath’s leading software solutions for enterprises looking to become more digital.
UiPath creates intelligent software robots that automate transactional processing, data manipulation, and cross-platform communication. This technology enables more sophisticated automations with AI capabilities such as document understanding and provides sophisticated analytics to measure the business impact of automation. This holistic ‘automation first’ approach is proven to be both substantial and transformative and is allowing everyone to collaborate and put automation squarely at the core of everyday work.
“Our partnership with UiPath enables us to accelerate our clients’ digital transformation journey. Aspire’s proven experience and excellence, coupled with this innovative technology will help our clients transform their business processes, and maximize their success.” says Abir Ghosh, Director and Head of Emerging Technologies and Partnerships at Aspire.
As part of this partnership, Aspire becomes a licensed reseller for UiPath software, offering a single purchase-point for organizations seeking services and software. Aspire also becomes an Implementation Partner enabling delivery and ongoing support for organizations that have selected UiPath as their RPA tool of choice to replace mundane tasks with automated processes, and deploy digital workforce.
About Aspire
Since 2002, Aspire, headquartered in Amman, Jordan, provides high quality IT Services to a large number of clients in the USA, Jordan and other countries around the globe. We have been a partner of choice for clients in Digital Transformation and IT Services. Our success has been driven by our customer-focused approach and commitment to building and maintaining long-term partnerships with our clients in the e-commerce, media, banking, telecom, and healthcare and wellness.
Aspire’s knowledge and experience with proven tools and frameworks allows for clients to achieve a higher return on investment and effectively deploy staff resources, while supporting flexibility and corporate objectives.
To learn more how Aspire can help accelerate your intelligent automation journey, Contact us
About UiPath
UiPath is the leading end-to-end platform for automation, combining the leading Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution with a full suite of capabilities and techs like AI, Process Mining, and Cloud to enable every organization to rapidly scale digital business operations. More than 700 enterprise customers and government agencies use UiPath’s Enterprise RPA platform to rapidly deploy software robots that perfectly emulate and execute repetitive processes, boosting business productivity, ensuring compliance and enhancing customer experience across back-office and front-office operations.
Based in New York City, UiPath’s presence extends to 14 countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia. With a thriving RPA developer community of more than 120,000 worldwide, UiPath is on a mission to democratize RPA and support a digital business revolution. To learn more about UiPath, please visit https://www.uipath.com
Meet Abdelrahman AlShakhshir, a fan of driving around town and testing the latest lunch spots with his friends, avid swimmer, self-therapy researcher and one of Aspire’s very own Senior Software Engineers.
What did you study?
I graduated from the University of Jordan with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Computer Information Systems.
Why did you choose IT?
I’ve had a passion for computers in general ever since I was a kid! I always imagined that in the future, I would be sitting behind a computer all day being able to do fancy things on the internet. I guess I was right.
What are you particularly passionate about within the IT industry?
Mostly everything that involves web and mobile technologies! Funny enough, even though I am a frontend developer, I tend to lean more towards backend development.
Why Aspire?
I was actually lucky to start working at Aspire only 5 days after having my final exams at university. As soon as I walked into the office, I felt comfortable! Even during the interview process, I knew that I had to work here because it felt like a second home. Back in 2019, I actually ended up leaving Aspire for another work opportunity, but after 2 months I decided to come back. After all, once an Aspirer, always an Aspirer!
What does your typical working day look like?
I usually rush in the mornings and grab a cup of coffee before heading to the office (prior to the pandemic). Once I get to the office, I usually draft up my daily schedule and then start by checking my emails. After that, I start working on my daily tasks and the team has a daily stand-up meeting to see how every team member is progressing. Once the meeting is done, I have a chat with my colleagues before I start focusing on the technical tasks. Prior to the pandemic, we would also try to grab lunch outside of the office about two to three times a week in order to get a break from the routine and try out new places. I enjoy my break and always have another cup of coffee with my friends at Aspire in the afternoon. After break, I start working on my technical tasks, usually short/simple ones first, then some chunks of the more complex tasks. At the end of the day, my team meets again to check up on the progress/results of the day (I really miss having these in-person). I always try to attend these meetings. I also always try to be on call for any emergency technical production situation that needs to be addressed quickly.
How has your day-to-day changed since the pandemic?
I get to sleep more! But honestly, it actually has changed a lot. When the pandemic started, I was working the night shift with a Silicon Valley based client. I was going to swim daily and I would go out with friends during the day instead of after work at night. I also had more time to see family and friends.
What do you value the most about the company?
The continuous investment in infrastructure and resources for us to always be up to date with the latest technologies and software development methodologies. Furthermore, I really value the awesome and friendly work environment and of course the people!
What keeps you busy outside of work?
Mostly, whatever I stumble upon on YouTube. I also love driving around with my friends every day and I like to read a lot about human psychology, self-therapy and medical studies.
Abdelrahman driving around town.
If you had to choose one programming language to use for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
It would be JavaScript. JavaScript can get messy quickly if it’s not mastered, it’s a very easy to learn language but it’s hard to master. It’s the world of contribution and open-source libraries and it’s so open that you can actually build great things, or break them!
What was the path to your current role at Aspire?
I joined Aspire as a Fresh Graduate Quality Analyst. Within the first two months, I joined the Quality Engineering department and after a year, I moved to Software Engineering. After two years, I was promoted to senior position, where I am today as a Senior Software Engineer.
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
A Cat, for no specific reason, I just adore lazy cats.
You have 10 seconds to impress someone. What do you tell them?
I would just give them a strong handshake and try to present myself in a creative and friendly way.
What is your favorite movie/series?
My favorite movie of all-time is ‘The Dictator’ by Sacha Baron Cohen and I also love sci-fi movies like ‘Inception’ and thrillers like ‘Shutter Island’. When it comes to series, I still don’t have a favorite, but I really enjoyed watching ‘Black Mirror’ and ‘Westworld’.
What’s your favorite song, singer or genre of music?
My all-time favorite song is ‘November Rain’ by Guns n’ Roses. I am pretty eclectic with my musical taste and I listen to pretty much all genres.
What is one thing you want to do before it is too late?
Travel all around Europe!
What excites you about the Aspire and what are your ambitions for the future?
I love the idea of being 6K miles away from users that use my code on a daily basis! The outsourcing world is a very cool thing. I would love to see Aspire expand even further and reach out to more European clients next. I have already gone to New York with work and would love to travel to Europe with work too.
Abdelrahman in NYC for an onsite client visit back in December, 2017.
If a genie appeared and gave you three wishes, what would they be?
- Go back in time to buy cheaper Bitcoins.
- Own a mansion around the Alps.
- To get taller by a few centimeters.
What’s your biggest personal achievement?
As a kid, I always had a deep-water phobia, but I conquered it with a lot of motivation and with the help of my two professional swimmer friends.
What’s your biggest professional accomplishment?
I passed a senior vacancy interview with one of our biggest US clients while I had only one week of knowledge of the required technology without any prior experience.
I was also able to lead a team in the QA department of 10 resources within the first year and a half of joining.
What superpower would you like to have?
Have a full neurological control of my brain.
If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Anything that has cream and cheese.
What’s your life philosophy?
Life has its ups and downs, it’s like a heartbeat, so no need to dwell on the past failures or disappointments, try to live in the moment because it’s the only thing that will help build your future.
Any tips for new graduates?
Keep on learning! Always invest some of your spare time to learn, build your self-confidence to give people a good first impression, because the first impression always lasts. Don’t try to be a perfectionist, it will only add an unnecessary stress to your life, it is due to our mistakes that we learn. Lastly, always try to expand your professional circle, step away from “energy vampires”, try and surround yourself with people who give you energy and of course always enjoy the ride of life!
We are hiring!
Are you inspired by Abdelrahman’s story? Do you want to start your journey at Aspire too? Join the Aspire family today!
Meet Doa’a Alkhateib, Game of Thrones fan, avid bookworm, Pinterest addict and one of Aspire’s most talented Team Leads and Technical Architects.
What is your current position?
I am currently a Team Lead, leading the Broadleaf Commerce Team, where we implement back-end services and I am also a Technical Architect. I have been leading this team for about 7 years now. Initially, this was the first service oriented architecture team, however, as we move to newer technologies, I now lead the back-end team for supporting the commerce and checkout of one of our biggest US clients in the health and wellness sector.
Why did you choose IT?
I actually graduated as an Electrical Engineer. When I graduated, all my elective courses were in communication and back then, I wanted to work in a telecom company but I ended up being hired in the IT field. After a while, once I got more experience with software engineering, I noticed that I really loved this area and I started developing myself by learning specific technologies and topics that I felt were missing in my CV to get to where I wanted.
What are you particularly passionate about within your industry?
I like how the IT industry is making our lives easier by having everything automated and accessible with simple commands through applications and websites. Everything in the world now is moving towards automation and business process automation, we have a lot of things in our lives that can be improved by using IT. Everything nowadays depends on IT. At Aspire, I like the fact that you can be assigned to multiple projects. This way I keep learning continuously, I have so much space to grow in the future. Lastly, I love how IT isn’t specific when it comes to industry, you can be in any type of business and meanwhile, the technology will still be the same.
Why Aspire?
Right after I graduated, I worked for another company for 6 years as a Software Engineer. The company’s products were mainly related to the hospitality sector. I wanted to increase my skills and to become a part of a bigger company. Aspire is one of the biggest IT companies in Jordan, especially when it comes to the number of employees and dealing with global enterprise-level clients with the highest level of standards and processes. I wanted to move to a company with these standards, with the latest technologies, with efficient and global projects, so I applied to Aspire and I have been here ever since.
What does your typical day look like?
Every morning, I do my face and skincare routine and after that I have my coffee. Before quarantine, I would get dressed straight after my morning routine and come to work. I would open my laptop and ping my friends/colleagues so that we could have a morning coffee break together. After quarantine, I spend time with my mom and my sister having my morning coffee with them and 30 mins later I start working. In the morning I start by checking my emails, tasks and notifications. Straight after, we have a standard daily meeting with the whole team to go through all the details, tasks and complications, how we can improve and make enhancements. After that, everyone has tasks to complete. In the afternoon, we usually have back-to-back meetings with the client and in between the meetings, we complete our tasks. After work it depends on my mood, sometimes I like to relax and rest after a long day, other days I like to hang out with family and friends, sometimes I watch movies, and I usually catch up on social media at night.
Doa’a hanging out with her friends
Has your work routine changed since the beginning of the pandemic?
We are still working remotely. I actually prefer working from the office, I feel that dealing with people directly is easier when it’s done face-to-face. I had some problems in the beginning and I had to learn how to take some time off for myself. I would just work all of the time and this wasn’t helping with my anxiety, so I changed a couple things and included some breaks. I also really miss dressing up for work. My lunch break time has also changed to match my family’s lunch break time.
What do you value the most about the company?
Aspire is a great company where I learned about many different technologies. We have access to the latest technologies and we adopt the latest methodologies for our enterprise customers. I have learned so much when it comes to technical and strategic thinking. We are always up-to-date with the market and many times we are even ahead. The company culture/environment is also amazing, I have made friendships for life.
Doa’a and Aspire colleagues during one of the team outings
What keeps you busy outside of work?
I like reading a lot. When I have time, I download books that have good ratings and read them. I spend a lot of time with my family and friends. I also love decor and design, and due to this hobby, I end up spending a lot of time on Pinterest searching for interesting new designs, outfits and getting inspiration, keeping collections of all of the things I like.
I also enjoy being outdoors.
Doa’a and friends spending time outdoors
If you had to choose one programming language to use for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
I prefer Java, I have only been using it for 2 years now but it’s one of the most robust and trending technologies in the market, it’s useful and also compatible with back-end services.
What was the path to your current role at Aspire?
I have been at Aspire for 9 years now. I joined as a Senior Software Engineer. After 2 years, I became a Team Lead. 3 years ago, I got promoted to an Architect position, however I also continue leading my team.
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
It’s hard to choose just one, so I will choose 2 which are completely opposite, just like me: first one is a deer because they are feminine, cute, gracious and most people like deers and the second one is a lioness, because they are anxious, very protective and always ready to attack.
What is your favorite movie/series?
I am a big Game of Thrones fan. Lately, I have been watching How to Get Away with Murder and Prision Break. My favorite movie of all time is Inception.
What’s your favorite song, singer or type of music?
I love arabic music! My favorite singer is Amr Diab.
What is one thing you want to do before it is too late?
I would like to open my own business one day.
What are your ambitions for Aspire?
I want to move to the next level and I want to become the first female Director at Aspire one day.
How do you believe Aspire can make an impact on our industry?
Aspire is doing a great job in outsourcing and as we move into the consulting space, this will be a great addition to our services.
If a genie appeared and gave you three wishes, what would they be?
- To keep myself, my family and friends in good health and safe
- To open my own business
- To get rich
What’s your biggest personal achievement?
Being self-independent, buying my own house and helping my mom.
What’s your biggest professional accomplishment?
Getting promoted to an Architect, being successful at my job and always looking to improve myself
What superpower would you like to have?
I would like to read people’s minds
If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Toasted peanuts
Do you have any goals you want to achieve in 2021?
In 2021, I hope to change some habits, improve my anxiety, and focus on my mental health more. Plan properly for my future dreams. I hope that the pandemic will end soon so that I am able to have a girls trip to Europe with my friends.
How do you think the work environment will change after the end of the pandemic?
Personally, I prefer to work from the office, but I believe that a hybrid approach will be implemented in the future for all companies. Full-time remote work can be done, but you still need to meet people in-person for mental health purposes and to develop social skills, team outings, developing relationships, among other things. A hybrid approach will be flexible for both employees and employers.
Any tips for new graduates?
I always tell new graduates to build their skills. What they have learned in university is important, but real-life experiences are very different compared to the educational theory they learned. They also need to understand and accept advice from someone who is senior and to be able to receive feedback as something positive. We always need to keep learning. Everyone that works in IT needs to keep learning continuously, even if you are a Team Lead, a Director, a CEO, etc. I feel that new graduates don’t know how to take direction well, so come with an open mind, be open to hearing, learning and receiving feedback.
We are hiring!
Did Doa’a inspire you to join the team? Do you want to start your story at Aspire too? Join the Aspire family today!
Meet Yousef Alkhrissat, video game fanatic, avid horror movie watcher and one of Aspire’s brightest Quality Engineers.
What role do you play at Aspire?
I am currently a Quality Engineer.
Why did you choose IT?
I have an Associates Degree in Computer Technology from The Faculty of Engineering. I primarily chose IT because I like to be isolated, I don’t like crowded places or a lot of face-to-face engagement and I have always loved programming.
What are you particularly passionate about within your industry?
I really like back-end development and I tend to do a lot of developing in my spare time.
Why Aspire?
Simply because it’s Aspire, the biggest and best in Jordan especially for learning the latest technologies.
What does your typical day look like?
Waking up, starting to work, going home (before the pandemic) which is now staying home and playing video games online with my friends and that’s basically it. It didn’t change much from being in the office or remote apart from the commute. Right now, I am playing Apex Legends online and I love it!
What do you value the most about the company?
I value the technical experience that I get.
Yousef with Aspire colleagues when he first joined the company
What is your favorite movie/series?
I am a big fan of Friends. I have finished all seasons of Friends about 20 times! My favorite movie is SAW, I really love horror movies.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I like to play video games, I watch movies, series, I go out with my friends. I am a basic guy, I like the little things in life.
Yousef playing Apex Legends with his friends online
If you had to choose one programming language to use for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
I would use PHP. I learned it in the very beginning of my programming career and I still use it until today.
What was the path to your current role at Aspire?
I was a Software Engineer at NCIT Solutions prior to Aspire, where I joined as a Quality Engineer.
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
A panda, because I like them and they are cute.
What’s your favorite song or type of music?
I like rock and I love the band Breaking Benjamin, my favorite song is Far Away.
What is one thing you want to do before it is too late?
I would like to create my own video game or direct a movie.
What excites you about the company?
I’m excited about the client I currently work with. It’s been really great working with them and I have learned a lot.
What are your ambitions for Aspire?
I would like to move from Quality Engineering to Software Engineering.
If a genie appeared and gave you three wishes, what would they be?
- To lose weight.
- To stay healthy all of my life.
- For my friends and family to live happy lives.
What’s your biggest personal achievement?
I learned Oracle development, PHP and PlSQL in 3 months all by myself.
What’s your biggest professional accomplishment?
I was a Team Lead for the past company I worked for. I had to use Zingit Solutions which I had never used before. The tool was broken on multiple projects and I managed to fix it on all of the broken projects! I was really proud of myself.
What superpower would you like to have?
I would like to fly to be able to travel and see the world from up top.
If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Pizza! I love all flavors and toppings.
What’s your life philosophy?
Just live in the moment, don’t look at the past or to the future, live the now.
Do you think anything will change post-pandemic?
Working from home will become a new norm or definitely a hybrid approach. Companies will get more time with employees as they won’t have to commute and employees will get more time with their families.
Any tips for new graduates?
Start learning as fast as you can, focus on your career and learn how to act in a work environment. Social and soft skills are also very important even for us techies.
We are hiring!
Are you inspired by Yousef’s story? Do you want to start your story at Aspire too? Join the Aspire family today!
An Introduction to RPA
Welcome to ‘Part 3’ of our Intelligent Automation blog series. If you haven’t read ‘Part 2’ yet, please click here.
In this part of our IA blog series, we will spot the light on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and how it has changed the way organizations work.
Gartner defines Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as “A productivity tool that allows a user to configure one or more scripts (which some vendors refer to as ‘bots’) to activate specific keystrokes in an automated fashion. The result is that the bots can be used to mimic or emulate selected tasks (transaction steps) within an overall business or IT process. These may include manipulating data, passing data to and from different applications, triggering responses, or executing transactions. RPA uses a combination of user interface interaction and descriptor technologies. The scripts can overlay on one or more software applications.”
At the core, RPA emulates human interactions with systems and executes them more quickly, accurately, and uninterruptedly in order to automate rule-based and repetitive processes. We can think of RPA as a digital worker that can interact with any system or application and capable to perform the following actions:
Since bots can utilize the user interface to work, there is no need to change systems or applications in order to automate a process. Furthermore, bots can work with systems and application in two ways:
- Attended bots: RPA bots which sits on the users’ machine and interacts with them to help with task execution and to boost productivity.
- Unattended bots: RPA bots that can run a process independently and on its own in order to achieve end-to-end automation.
RPA has been able to make a reputation of being a relatively simple technology, easy to use, and quick to deploy, however, it is crucial to select the right processes for RPA in order to tap into the huge potential of this technology and to sense the benefits of deploying it in a digital workforce.
There are best practices and clear strategies within the RPA framework to pick the processes most suitable for RPA. Here are some of the characteristics for an RPA candidate process:
- A rule-based process that follows a logical sequence.
- A highly repetitive process with high-transaction volumes.
- A stable process that depends on structured or semi-structured data.
Organizations across all industries can benefit from automating rule-based and repetitive processes. RPA enables finance, banking, insurance, healthcare, and many other sectors to transform their operations and to realize measurable outcomes and benefits such as:
- Reduced Costs: Reduced spending on FTE for back-end processes opens up opportunities to reinvest or take efficiency dividends.
- Increased Quality: Quality of outputs is increased as chances of error are reduced significantly.
- 24/7 Availability: Bots operating 24/7 can reduce workload peaks and improve response time.
- High Scalability: Bots can be scaled up and down as required – for example, to manage high volumes in peak times of the year.
- Increased Productivity: Staff can be liberated from mundane and repetitive processing tasks and focus on value-added tasks.
- Increased Compliance: RPA tool provides full audit trail of processes performed and those that are rule-based.
- Non-Invasive Technology: No need to change the underlying systems or technology as RPA is deployed on top of the systems and applications.
- Insights & Analytics: All activities are captured and visual dashboards can be created to identify areas for improvements.
According to McKinsey, “automating business processes through RPA can lead to a return on investment between 30-200% in the first year after implementation, and to 20-25% savings on average.“
An optimal utilization of RPA for maximum gains is to run the repetitive, rule-based processes by the digital workforce, and to allocate the human workforce for the tasks which require human strengths such as human judgement and complex reasoning, emotional intelligence, or communication skills.
Let’s take an example of a bank statement reconciliation process. It’s a common use case across many organizations under the finance function and it ticks all the boxes for the RPA process selection criteria. The core of the bank statement reconciliation process is to reconcile the organization bank account balance against its cash account balance to understand the current cash position at any point in time. It is rule-based, repetitive, and a high-transactional process where accuracy can’t be compromised.
In a manual bank statement reconciliation process, staff performs the following activities:
- Accesses the online banking and downloads the account statement for a certain period of time. This activity is repeated for each bank and each account.
- Opens the core system and generates the cash balance sheet report for the same account and for the same duration.
- Manually reconciles the transactions in the bank statement report against the transactions in the cash balance report based on a certain criterion such as transaction amount and transaction date.
- Prepares a report for the reconciliation results (reconciled transactions, unreconciled transactions) and sends it to the concerned party for review and action.
- Repeat steps 2 to 4 for each bank statement.
When it comes to checking and matching transactions manually, there are a few challenges which can be encountered especially for organizations that deal with a bigger number of account types, institutions, payment types, time zones, and payment complexities. These challenges include:
RPA can bring automation to the manual bank statement reconciliation where a bot can perform the repetitive tasks of reconciliation and can work with the systems just like a human does, but more quickly, accurately and with zero margin for error, even for huge volumes of transactions. As a result of this automation, a range of benefits can be introduced like:
Similarly to the robotic bank statement reconciliation process, organizations can recognize the same benefits of RPA with many other processes and functions within several sectors. Below we mention some of the most common RPA use cases:
Banking:
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- Customer digital onboarding
- Card activation
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- Compliance screening and KYC
- Outward transfers processing
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Insurance:
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- Create/update/delete policy
- TPA reconciliation
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- Quote generation
- Payment and receipt vouchers
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Finance:
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- Bank statement reconciliation
- Vendor statement reconciliation
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- Exchange rates real-time update
- Invoice processing
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Human Resources
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- Employee onboarding
- Time and attendance management
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- Payroll processing
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IT
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- Reset password
- User management
- Periodic backup
- Email related tasks
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In the recent years, many organizations have started to see RPA as a key component of their digital transformation strategy. While the definition of RPA is straightforward, the concept and mechanism can be easily misunderstood.
In order to implement RPA in a proper manner, we will have to understand the overall RPA implementation roadmap. The below figure describes the stages of the RPA roadmap and the main activities required in each stage:
The RPA Roadmap can arm organizations with the information and strategies they need to set a solid foundation for the RPA journey. Aspire can help organizations effectively use RPA to boost productivity, improve accuracy and grow the business.
You can successfully implement RPA when you have the right team with you. Aspire is committed to devote its knowledge and experience to setup the proper implementation framework and to advance on a transformative RPA initiative. We empower organizations to implement, run, and scale up a digital workforce with the aim of saving costs and attaining business continuity. Are you considering automating your repetitive business tasks but don’t know where to begin? Speak to our RPA team today, we are here to help you every step of the way.
Written by: Mohammad Keswani, Manager of RPA Solutions
AMMAN, Jordan, Dec. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Introducing Aspire, the company that has put Jordan on the map for IT outsourcing.
When you think of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the first thing that comes to mind is that of a beautiful and historic country, with its famous tourist sites (such as Petra and the Dead Sea), great food, and a vibrant culture.
Aspire employees in Jordan HQ (PRNewsfoto/Aspire)
While all this is true, increasingly, Jordan is being recognized as a regional hub for technology, economic activities and foreign investments due to its strategic location between Africa, Asia and Europe, along with its highly educated and skilled workforce and stable, business friendly governance.
Aspire realized Jordan’s potential nearly two decades ago and has been as the leading IT Services Partner for multinational companies ever since.
“These last 18 years have been an exciting journey for Aspire, during which we have continuously evolved to keep pace with the fast-changing technology landscape. This has been possible due to the skills and sheer professionalism of our team of talented Aspirers. They have served our clients with a 120% delivery mindset and a single-minded focus on enabling clients achieve their business successes. As a proud Jordanian company, we are proud of the diversity of our workforce with over 300 tech-savvy professionals mostly from Jordan and 40+ % of them being female. We have delivered close to nine million hours of services, to global and local clients in a wide array of sectors, from healthcare to financial services, from media and entertainment to governmental agencies. Aspire is built on our core values of trust, reliability and quality!”
– Kaushal Shah, Founder and Managing Director
Aspire Services
Aspire currently provides a variety of services, from Digital Transformation including Agile, Cloud & DevOps transformation, Quality Engineering & Testing, Infrastructure Support Services to bespoke Software & Mobile Engineering Services. Aspire Digital services are aligned to the key pillars of client success – the right strategy and architecture to derive optimal returns from digital investments, enhanced experience and growth through greater customer interactions and introduction of efficiency and agility in our approach and processes to optimize costs and improve quality.
Aspire Today
Aspire has always been agile, working with the latest technologies offering a flexible delivery model. Remote work is not something new for the employees of Aspire. They could previously work remotely if they wished, as long as they didn’t sacrifice on quality, communication, productivity, collaboration and security. Due to this, Aspire’s digitally savvy teams have been able to deliver uninterrupted services for customers in Jordan and around the world.
Even in the midst of a pandemic, our work has remained steady and even grown due to pure word-of-mouth recommendations from clients. The pandemic has transformed the way CXOs are looking at sustaining and growing their businesses. It is widely recognized that now, more than ever, Digital transformation has become the top priority for companies to ensure minimal disruptions to their businesses. Companies are in fact leveraging digital technologies in the current situation to optimize their business costs, identify new revenue streams and enable enhanced service delivery through appropriate digital interventions.
Aspire 2.0.
As Aspire turns 20 in 2022, it is on a mission to reinvent itself as a full-service technology consulting partner – what it calls as the ‘Aspire 2.0 Vision.’
So, what does Aspire wish to achieve in this new phase? Aspire Vision 2.0 means that:
- Aspire intends to strategically enter into newer markets in the MENA region and further strengthen our presence in Jordan as well as other North American markets
- Increasing our focus on new/emerging technologies such as: Intelligent Automation, Data & Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cybersecurity, among others
- Providing best-in-class technology consulting services leveraging Aspire proprietary tools, frameworks and enablers built on decades of professional services experience across industries and technologies
- Strategic talent acquisition from leading companies across the globe to lead transformation initiatives and new business lines
- Continue to develop partnerships with strategic OEM and delivery partners
How we can help?
If you want to:
- Reduce cost of back-office functions while improving efficiency of your business processes through a digital workforce
- Improve customer experience and engagement through adoption of smart digital solutions
- Define and /or review your current Digital strategy
- Assess your Digital application landscape and help define a roadmap aligned to current technology trends and business needs
- Identify, build or move or manage Cloud applications
- Improve agility of product and solutions, based on world class Agile practices
- Enhance the flexibility, maintainability and security of your applications
- Outsource the end-to-end development of your omni-channel product/solutions on modern digital technologies
- Measure and help improve the quality of your products and solutions from functional and non-functional perspectives
- Review your Business process landscape and help identify, build and run automation solutions (digital bots) to improve quality, efficiency of your services at an optimized cost
If you answered yes to any of these statements, we are the partner for you.
Aspire is here to help customers every step of the way, reducing the friction of adopting the newest technologies, working smoothly and seamlessly and getting the most out of their tools while automating as much as possible along the way. More is yet to come as we embark on our Aspire 2.0 journey. As we scale our teams and capabilities through new partnerships, people and services, expect to hear from us over the next months. Let Aspire be your trusted partner, in the beginning, throughout and beyond. Contact us today.
About Aspire:
Aspire is a leader in IT services based in Amman, Jordan, with offices in the US and India. Aspire supports a variety of web based and digital enterprises focusing on six main service offerings across various industries: Mobile Development, Software Development, Professional Services, Digital Transformation, Cloud & DevOps and QA & Testing. Aspire’s knowledge and experience with proven tools and frameworks allows for clients to achieve a higher return on investment and effectively deploy staff resources, while supporting flexibility and corporate objectives. Aspire has consistently remained a strong and steady vendor/partner to its clients, as evidenced by its long-standing client engagements. Aspire’s agile approach to service delivery ensures that the focus is always on ‘Value Derived for the Client.’ Want to join the team? We are hiring.
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Media Contacts:
Camila Luz
Digital Marketing Manager
[email protected]
Jawdat Nassar
Director, Business Development
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Most of you are used to our Life @ Aspire series, however, today we decided to do something different and we interviewed Ahmad Younis for our first ever Life Post Aspire blog series.
Meet Ahmad Younis, ex-Aspirer, QA Engineer, fitness and travel fanatic, now living out of California.
Tell me a bit about yourself?
Currently, I am a QA Engineer for Roblox. I have been with Roblox for the past 2 years now, living in the Bay Area, San Francisco, California. Before that, I was also working in the Bay Area for another company (Kyocera), where I stayed for almost 3 years. Prior to moving to the US, I was in Poland for a little over a year, working for another IT company (Astrafox) as a QA Tester. Before Poland, I was at Aspire for 5 years, where I started as a Fresh Graduate.
Ahmad, at the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, USA
Why did you choose IT?
I graduated in Software Engineering from Al Rafidain University College in Iraq back in 2004. I chose IT because I always knew that I wanted to work in this field and that I would have many opportunities to grow. Right after graduation, I moved to Jordan where I started as a Fresh Graduate at Aspire as a QA Trainee. The company was still relatively small when I joined, we had about 40 people in 2004. My English skills weren’t great, so I started learning English, how to write emails and working on my communication skills. After work, some of my Aspire colleagues helped me practice English which made me feel highly motivated. I did this in order to advance in my career and to understand our client’s culture as I was working with an American client at the time. All of my hard work paid off and after a few years, I became a QA Supervisor and began leading projects. After 5 years at Aspire, I decided to move to Poland for my next career opportunity.
What are you particularly passionate about within your industry?
I love QA! It is a very big field. There is QA Networking for testing, coding for testing, manual testing and many more. All of this requires you to think outside of the box, to think of possible scenarios and imagine how the end user would think, keep working to find bugs and test everything. I am also fascinated by automation now and how this might tie into QA. The most important thing is to be passionate about learning, as things keep changing really fast.
Why did you join Aspire?
I joined Aspire to get an internship opportunity. Luckily, I got a full-time job after my internship. I developed a love for QA and for the Aspire family throughout my time there. I left after 5 years of working at Aspire back in 2009 and believe it or not, after 11 years I still keep in contact with my Aspire colleagues until today. Every time that I come to Jordan, I go back to the office for a quick visit to remember the good old days.
Ahmad during one of his visits to the Aspire offices, Jordan
What does your typical day currently look like?
I start every morning with yoga. I go to work, grab a coffee and get started. During lunchtime, I usually go to the gym. We have a gym at the office and after my workout and a quick bite, I feel ready and energized for my afternoon meetings ahead. We have an open plan office, similar to Aspire’s layout which is a really friendly and nice environment. After work, I usually go out with my coworkers or friends for a drink or dinner. Now during COVID-19 times, I have been mainly staying in as much as possible.
How has it been moving around so much?
When I moved from Iraq to Jordan, I noticed some differences even though both are Arab countries. We also have a huge cultural mix of people in Jordan and especially at Aspire where people are really friendly. The move from Jordan to Poland was a big one, the work climate in Europe was very different to Jordan and it helped me to understand different cultures and especially how to explain things in a very brief way, how to get “straight to the point”. When I moved from Poland to the US, it was a whole different experience, and a more fast-paced environment. We have a lot of working-meetings where we agree and make changes that are needed during the actual presentations/meetings.
What did you value the most about Aspire?
The quality that we give to clients and the quality of the employees are very high.
What is your favorite movie/series?
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is my favorite movie and Friends is definitely my favorite TV series.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I like to go out and meet new people, make new friends through social networking and I like to travel, especially around California. I love watching the sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge, I also go to Yosemite National Park quite a lot.
Ahmad, going for a walk with his friend’s dog in San Francisco, USA
What is one thing you want to do before it is too late?
Travel as much as I can.
Ahmad exploring Page in Arizona, USA
Ahmad in Sydney, Australia
What, in your opinion, are the most important issues in the IT industry?
Too many languages and way too many devices which complicates things a lot, especially when it comes to testing.
What’s your biggest personal achievement?
To always stay healthy, I really focus on this a lot.
Ahmad cycling in Vail, Colorado, USA
What’s your biggest professional accomplishment?
Where I am now, how far I got. I am super happy and proud of what I have achieved. Back in Iraq, I didn’t even have an internet connection at home and I have built so much from where I started.
What superpower would you like to have?
I would love to be able to time-travel. Within 2 minutes I could be in another country, imagine how cool that would be.
If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Pasta. I LOVE pasta! All types of pasta.
What’s your life philosophy?
You are not special because of who you are but because of what you do and the most important thing is to be happy, to enjoy what you are doing and be mentally well.
Ahmad going on an adventurous helicopter ride in Maui, Hawaii, USA
Most memorable moment at Aspire?
I felt very special when I moved from an intern to becoming a full-time employee. I felt valuable. We also had so many fun times. I remember when the whole company went on a field trip to Wadi Rum, we took a bus out there and everyone was singing along the way. It was great!
If you could choose one technology to use for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
I would like to have a self-driving car. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about traffic and could get more things done during that time.
Were you affected by COVID-19?
The US was one of the most affected countries. Everybody had to work from home and for quite a while. In the beginning, things were hard, especially because we didn’t know for how long the pandemic would be. A lot of people died, luckily nobody that I know personally, but a lot of people got affected mentally and from a work perspective, I really missed my social life and face-to-face interactions with people.
How do you think life will be post-pandemic?
Working from home is going to be the new model, especially for tech companies. We know this is where we are headed but we are still waiting to see if this will be optional or if it will be hybrid. A hybrid model in my opinion would be the best combination, socializing is very important for me.
Any tips for new graduates?
From my experience, the most important thing is to think about the skill sets and what you need to improve. I felt that my english skills were lacking and I really worked hard to improve this to get to where I am today. It is also important to think strategically and not just on a job title, think about communication skills, technical capabilities, and what you can learn from the opportunities you are given.
We are hiring!
Are you inspired by Ahmad’s story? Do you want to start your story at Aspire too? Join the Aspire family today!
Welcome to ‘Part 2’ of our Intelligent Automation blog series. If you haven’t read ‘Part 1’ yet, please click here.
As promised in Part 1, we will dive deep into each pillar of Intelligent Automation (IA). Staying consistent with the logical and historical development of automation, we will start by exploring Business Process Automation (BPA) first and then moving onto the other 2 pillars of IA: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our upcoming blog articles.
Recalling the definition of Techopedia for Business Process Automation (BPA): “it is the process of managing information, data and processes to reduce costs, resources and investment.” BPA increases productivity by automating key business processes through computing technology.
BPA aims to streamline data-driven processes by using technology to route information to the right person at the right time for decision making and taking actions. BPA helps organization to attain numerous benefits like:
- Improve operational efficiency
- Save time and efforts
- Improve customer experience
- Minimize human involvement in menial tasks and support knowledge workers
- Ensure the application of best practices and create real time transparency
- Create an improved culture for collaboration and innovation
The point of BPA is to accelerate how work gets done through a variety of software tools under an integral architecture. These tools cover the main elements of BPA in order to ensure an effectual process automation. The main 2 elements of BPA are:
- Data
- Business Rules & Logic
1) Data: is an important asset to any organization. Industry experts have been raising awareness on the importance of data through many publications that talk about “Data Economy” and that “Data is the new oil”. Essentially, there are 2 types of Data, Structured Data and Unstructured Data. According to Datamation, “structured data is comprised of clearly defined data types whose pattern makes them easily searchable; while unstructured data – “everything else” – is comprised of data that is usually not as easily searchable, including formats like audio, video, and social media postings.”
i) We can think of Structured Data (also called Quantitative Data) as any data that comes in a pre-defined format and straightforward to analyze like dates, phone numbers, point of sale data, and weblog statistics which conforms to a tabular format like excel files, SQL databases.
ii) On the other hand, Unstructured Data (or Qualitative Data) does not follow a pre-defined model and not organized in any certain manner. Unstructured data like documents, emails, newsletters, reviews and social media may include texts, numbers, and dates but with irregularities that make it difficult to analyze and to make sense of it.
2) Business Rules & Logic: Business rules can be described as the instructions and constraints which create policies to control the behavior of the business. Business logic is the action steps to transform policies into processes to enable the business achieve its goals.
A successful BPA solution must offer a platform to manage content and extract useful data from several sources in a variety of formats (physical and digital documents, emails and fax), then to route it around business via an automated workflow for relevant actions as part of a process. In addition, to empower decision makers by delivering dashboards and reports that give a visual representation of live data. Such holistic BPA solution can form an effective correlation between data (structured and unstructured) and business rules and logic to allow businesses to centralize their work processes and improve operations and customer experience.
Organizations realize the value of BPA, however getting started with the automation journey can be challenging. The points below can help to succeed in automation:
- Have a good insight on the business activities, their frequencies, and responsibility.
- Set business main goals and priorities.
- Identify the right processes for automation. Start with processes which are repetitive, time consuming, and has high business value.
- Select the right automation tool.
- Create a backup plan. It’s always better to have a plan B.
In most cases, there are situations where the process has to be improved to automate it in the best way possible. Process improvement can include merging steps to simplify the process, removing redundant steps, standardizing the process, and forming an outline for continuous improvement.
While every industry has different business needs, BPA can help any industry to benefit from the automation of as many manual processes as possible. Let’s zoom in on a common use case of ‘Accounts Payable’.
Accounts payable (AP) process is one of the most critical processes in a business. AP is the processing of payments owed by the business. In a manual AP process, the company receives paper-based invoices and routes it manually for actions and approvals to ensure that these invoices are legitimate and accurate for processing the payment.
Normally, the traditional AP process consists of the following manual activities:
The manual AP process completely relies on the physical movement of invoices and supporting documents and produces many challenges such as:
- Long processing time and slow responsiveness which leads to delays in payments.
- Lack of ability to store, manage and track documents and information.
- Manual data entry and increased possibility of human errors.
- Inability to have real-time visibility on payment status and to share information with decision makers or suppliers.
- Exposure to fraudulent information.
With BPA, the AP process activities can be optimized and reduced to be as follows:
A sound end-to-end solution can streamline the AP process by providing a channel to receive digital copies of the invoices, capture data from the received invoices and documents by using an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tool, automatically verify the information and validate it against the respective PO or agreement, and then route it via a smart workflow for automatic payment with the ability to digitally stamp or sign the invoices.
BPA can help organizations overcome the struggle with delayed payments and frustrated suppliers, and to achieve many benefits. Benefits include:
- Elimination of manual data entry, invoice duplicates and human errors.
- Digital storing of documents which can be easily managed and tracked.
- Real time visibility into valuable information, process metrics and tasks statuses.
- Streamlined approval processes with less turnaround time.
- Reduced costs of printing and physical storage.
- Possibility of early-pay discounts and optimized cash flow.
- Increased process control and easily compliant to regulations.
If you are looking for Intelligent Automation guidance, start your transformation today with Aspire as your Trusted Partner.
In the next blog, we will talk about the rise of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and how it has changed the way we work. Don’t miss it.
Written by: Mohammad Keswani, Manager of RPA Solutions
Meet Ra’ed Omar, Judy’s father, avid traveller, Real Madrid fan and one of our brightest Team Leads’ at Aspire! Continue reading to find out more about his day-to-day.
Why did you choose IT?
At university, I decided to study Computer Information Systems. However, before making that decision, I actually wanted to study Architecture instead. I chose IT as I thought I could have better career opportunities and I definitely have made the right choice.
What are you particularly passionate about within your industry?
I am really passionate about developing processes and QA. I really like QA and continuously learning about how to improve products, processes and services with more quality.
Why Aspire?
Aspire was actually my first IT-related job. I didn’t know much about the company before joining, but I knew that they had an interesting Graduate Program, so I applied. I wanted to join a company where I could grow my career and luckily, I have been here for almost 8 years now.
What does your typical day look like?
I usually wake up early and play with my baby girl, Judy. Before the pandemic, sometimes I would arrive at the office a little bit late because she didn’t want me to leave. I start every morning by hearing her voice and playing with her. At work, I start my day by checking up on my emails and Slack. I then follow up with my team and check on what happened overnight, what our daily plan is, and what are our blockers. I follow up with the team throughout the day to check up on how the tasks are going. By 2 PM, I start preparing the results that need to be delivered to the client when they wake up as we work with a US client. By 5 PM, we start deployments and meetings for the rest of the afternoon. With the pandemic, my routine has stayed the same, even while working from home. In the evenings, I keep checking slack to stay connected with my team that works on staggered hours. I then have dinner with my family, watch TV or football matches. I am a big Real Madrid fan.
Ra’ed with his beautiful wife, and daughter Judy
What do you value the most about the company?
I value many things, but the most important thing is that I feel appreciated here, I always get verbal recognition which is important, and I have been promoted many times throughout these years.
Bernard handing Ra’ed his ‘Employee of the Month’ certificate
What is your favorite movie/series?
In movies, I like drama! Most people don’t, but I always like to watch and reflect. ‘The Life of David Gale’, is my favorite! Not many people know about this movie but I really enjoyed it (if you haven’t heard about it, you should add it to your list). I also prefer older movies, I just feel like the new ones aren’t as good.
What do you like to do in your free time?
For holidays, I always try to travel. Watch soccer matches, eat with my family, visit relatives and play card games with my friends (I am really good at Trex, which is a popular game in Jordan).
Ra’ed traveling in Rome
If you had to choose one programming language/technology to use for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
I really enjoy Java and backend development. I love programming in Java.
What was the path to your current role at Aspire?
I can consider my growth process as really good. I started off as a Fresh Graduate and stayed as a Junior QA Resource for about 2 years. I then became a Senior QA and after 7 months I became a Supervisor. About a year later, I got promoted to Team Lead, which is still my current position.
What is something that will surprise your colleagues?
2 things really: first one is that I am not Jordanian, I am Palestinian, but I grew up in Jordan. Second one is that I spent a total of 6 months in Colombia for work back in 2017 and 2019, I learned a lot of Spanish too, which was nice.
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
A black horse, I really like horses and I think they are powerful, intelligent, loyal and beautiful creatures.
What is one thing you want to do before it is too late?
Parachuting or skydiving. I am afraid of heights so I want to conquer my fears.
Does a particular time in your career stand out?
The first time, my Team Lead told me that he couldn’t travel to the US back in 2014, I was a Junior at the time and he gave me the opportunity to travel to the US for 2 months because he really trusted me. That really touched my heart. My visa got rejected the first time and the HR team tried again and I travelled.
What are your ambitions for Aspire?
I want Aspire to be the biggest IT Service Provider in the MENA region and we are definitely on our way there.
If a genie appeared and gave you three wishes, what would they be?
1 – Health for my family
2 – Travel to the South Pole
3 – To give everything that my daughter (Judy) wants
What’s your biggest personal achievement?
My marriage and building our family.
What’s your biggest professional accomplishment?
Getting promoted to Team Lead.
What superpower would you like to have?
To be super fast in everything, run as fast as a cheetah!
If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Mango! I love fruits and vegetables.
Ra’ed picking eggplants
What’s your life philosophy?
Treat others as you want to be treated.
Do you think the pandemic has changed the way we work? Will this be the “new norm”?
Yes, I do believe so, regardless of the way this pandemic will end I think the way we work has definitely changed forever, working online has come to stay! However, face-to-face communication will still be needed and irreplaceable, so I believe most companies will adapt to a hybrid model, part-time working from home and part-time in the office.
Any tips for new graduates?
First of all, work and work hard. You will need to work a lot in the beginning in order to gain experience and improve, so focus on yourself. Second, you need to be very passionate and ambitious in order to achieve your goals, so don’t just think about salary and appreciation. These things come with experience and time.
We are hiring!
If you want to work with inspiring and tech-savvy employees like Ra’ed, join the Aspire family today.