Reading time 7 min

ACA Group Team

November 30, 2023 marked a highly anticipated day for numerous ACA employees. Because on Ship-IT Day, nine teams of ACA team members, whether or not supplemented with customer experts, delved into creating inventive solutions for customer challenges or for ACA Group itself. The hackathon proved to be both inspiring and productive, with at the end a deserved winner! The atmosphere in the ACA office in Hasselt was sizzling right from the early start. Eight out of the nine project teams were stationed here. During the coffee cake breakfast, you immediately felt that it was going to be an extraordinary day. There was a palpable sense of excitement among the project team members , as well as a desire to tackle the complex challenges ahead. 9 innovative projects for internal and external challenges 🚀 After breakfast, the eight project teams swarmed to their working habitat for the day. The ninth team competed in the ACA office in Leuven. We list the teams here: Chatbot course integration in customer portal System integration tests in a CI/CD pipeline Onboarding portal/platform including gamification Automatic dubbing, transcription and summary of conversations publiq film offering data import via ML SMOCS, Low level mock management system Composable data processing architecture Virtual employees Automated invoicing If you want to know more about the scope of the different project teams, read our first blog article Ship-IT Day 2023: all projects at a glance . Sensing the atmosphere in the teams Right before noon, we wondered how the teams had started and how their work was evolving. And so we went to take a quick look... 👀 1. Chatbot course integration in customer portal “After a short kick-off meeting with the customer, we divided the tasks and got to work straight away,” says Bernd Van Velsen. “The atmosphere is great and at the end of the day, we hope to present a result that will inspire the customer . In the best case, we will soon be able to use AI tools in a real customer project with the aim of making more optimal use of the customer's many data.” “The Ship-IT Day is an annual tradition that I like to participate in,” says Bernd. “Not only because it is great to collaborate with colleagues from other departments, but also because it is super educational.” 2. System integration tests in a CI/CD pipeline “We want to demonstrate that we can perform click tests in the frontend in an existing environment and verify whether everything works together properly,” says Stef Noten. “We can currently run the necessary tests locally, so we are good on schedule. The next step is to also make this work in our build pipeline. At the end of the day, we hope we will be able to run the tests either manually or scheduled on the latest version of the backend and frontend .” 3. Onboarding portal/platform including gamification The members of this project team all started at ACA fairly recently. And that is exactly what brought them together, because their goal was to develop a platform that makes the onboarding process for new employees more efficient and fun . Dieter Vennekens shared his enthusiasm with us, stating, "We kicked off with a brainstorming session to define the platform's requirements and goals. Subsequently, we reviewed these with the key users to ensure the final product aligns with their expectations. Our aim is to establish the basic structure before lunch, allowing us to focus on development and styling intensively in the afternoon. By the day's end, our objective is to unveil a functional prototype. This project serves as an opportunity to showcase the capabilities of Low-Code .” 4. Automatic dubbing, transcription and summary of conversations Upon entering their meeting room, we found the project team engrossed in their work, and Katrien Gistelinck provided a concise explanation for their business. "Our project is essentially divided into two aspects. Firstly, we aim to develop an automatic transcription and summary of a conversation . Concurrently, we are working on the live dubbing of a conversation, although we're uncertain about the feasibility of the latter within the day. It might be a tad ambitious, but we are determined to give it a try." She continued, "This morning, our focus was on defining the user flow and selecting the tools we'll utilize. Currently, multiple tasks are progressing simultaneously, addressing both the UI and backend components." 5. Publiq film offering data import via ML Comprising six publiq employees and three from ACA, this team engaged in an introductory round followed by a discussion of the project approach at the whiteboard. They then allocated tasks among themselves. Peter Jans mentioned, "Everyone is diligently working on their assigned tasks, and we maintain continuous communication. The atmosphere is positive, and we even took a group photo! Collaborating with the customer on a solution to a specific challenge for an entire day is energizing. " "At the close of the day, our objective is to present a functional demo showcasing the AI and ML (Machine Learning) processing of an email attachment, followed by the upload of the data to the UIT database. The outcome should be accessible on uitinvlaanderen.be ." Peter adds optimistically, "We're aiming for the win." That's the spirit, Peter! 6. SMOCS, Low level mock management system Upon our arrival, the SMOCS team was deeply engrossed in their discussions, making us hesitant to interrupt. Eventually, they graciously took the time to address our questions, and the atmosphere was undoubtedly positive. "We initiated the process with a brief brainstorming session at the whiteboard. After establishing our priorities, we allocated tasks accordingly. Currently, we are on track with our schedule: the design phase is largely completed, and substantial progress has been made with the API. We conduct a status check every hour, making adjustments as needed," they shared. "By the end of the day, our aim is to showcase an initial version of SMOCS , complete with a dashboard offering a comprehensive overview of the sent requests along with associated responses that we can adjust. Additionally, we have high hopes that the customized response will also show up in the end-user application." 7. Composable data processing architecture This project team aims to establish a basic architecture applicable to similar projects often centered around data collection and processing. Currently, customers typically start projects from scratch, while many building blocks could be reused via platform engineering and composable data. “Although time flies very quickly, we have already collected a lot of good ideas,” says Christopher Scheerlinck. “What do we want to present later? A very complex scheme that no one understands (laughs). No, we aspire to showcase our concepts for realizing a reusable architecture , which we can later pitch to the customer. Given that we can't provide a demo akin to other teams, we've already come to terms with the likelihood of securing second place!" 8. Virtual employees This team may have been the smallest of them all, but a lot of work had already been done just before noon. “This morning we first had a short meeting with the customer to discuss their expectations,” Remco Goyvaerts explains. “We then identified the priority tasks and both of us quickly got to work. The goal is to develop a virtual colleague who can be fed with new information based on AI and ML . This virtual colleague can help new employees find certain information without having to disturb other employees. I am sure that we will be able to show something beautiful, so at the moment the stress is well under control.” Chatbot technology is becoming more and more popular. Remco sees this Ship-IT project as the ideal opportunity to learn more about applications with long-term memory. “The Ship-It Day is a fantastic initiative,” says Remco. “It's wonderful to have the opportunity to break away from the routine work structure and explore innovative ideas.” 9. Automated invoicing The client involved in this project handles 50,000 invoices annually in various languages. The objective is to extract accurate information from these invoices, translate it into the appropriate language, and convert it into a format easily manageable for the customer . “Although we started quite late, we have already made great progress,” notes Bram Meerten. "We can already send the invoice to Azure, which extracts the necessary data reasonably well. Subsequently, we transmit that data to ChatGPT, yielding great results. Our focus now is on visualizing it in a frontend. The next phase involves implementing additional checks and solutions for line information that isn't processed correctly." Bram expresses enthusiasm for the Ship-IT Day concept, stating, "It's fun to start from scratch in the morning and present a functional solution at the end of the day. While it may not be finished to perfection, it will certainly be a nice prototype." And the winner is …. 🏆 At 5 p.m., the moment had arrived... Each team had the opportunity to showcase their accomplishments in a 5-minute pitch, followed by a voting session where everyone present could choose their favorite. All teams successfully presented a functional prototype addressing their customer's challenges. While the SMOCS team may not have managed to visualize their solution, they introduced additional business ideas with the SMOCintosh and the SMOCS-to-go food concept. However, these ideas fell just short of securing victory. In a thrilling final showdown, the team working on the onboarding platform for ACA came out as the winners! Under the name NACA (New at ACA), they presented an impressive prototype of the onboarding platform, where employees gradually build a rocket while progressing through their onboarding journey. Not only was the functionality noteworthy, but the user interface also received high praise. Congratulations to the well-deserving winners! Enjoy your shopping and dinner vouchers. 🤩 See you next year!

Reading time 9 min

ACA Group Team

Last year, I started out as an intern at ACA Group, the highlight of my college education. Later on that year, I was offered the opportunity to join the IT company on a fixed contract. In this blog post I talk about my experiences throughout this process, I offer a number of useful tips and warn against potential pitfalls. The job interview, an intimidating beast? Applying for an internship may feel like a daunting and uncomfortable prospect. However, it is the first necessary step as part of the process to land an internship. Which is why it is important to sit down and make a thorough selection of the kind of businesses and internships that take your interest before getting started. One of the companies that caught my eye was ACA Group. The thing that struck me right away during the online job interview with ACA Group was the proper balance between the technical and more general questions I was asked. So come prepared and bear in mind the context of your assignment. This will make you feel more at ease answering questions. I had a good feeling coming out of the online interview, also because, alongside the more serious topics covered, there was time for a bit of a laugh. This also showed the kind of company culture that exists at ACA Group. After a couple of weeks, they got back to me with the good news saying the internship was mine. I did not think twice and decided to embark on my adventure at ACA Group. The internship unboxed I had opted for an internship assignment outside my comfort zone. This enabled me to pick up many new skills over this short time period and take the challenge head on. Previously, I had been especially interested in back-end technologies like Java, but my internship assignment ultimately ended up being largely front-end focused (React, Jamstack). It’s all about being unafraid to take the jump! The assignment was to build an application for ACA to test job applicants' basic knowledge by having them solve technical assignments presented in the form of puzzles (not entirely dissimilar to hackthebox). By successfully completing these technical assignments, the applicants show that they have what it takes. Afterwards, they get to hand over their resume and contact details, along with the solutions they’ve come up with. During the job interview, the recruiter provides feedback on the results of these technical assignments. This application enables implicit information to be exchanged between ACA and the job applicant. Internship onboarding Soon the day came when I headed out to the office for the first time for my induction. That same morning, I was issued with a MacBook Pro with all the peripherals, and I was provided with all the information I needed to successfully accomplish my internship. The thing that struck me right away was the fact that the induction was conducted in a very homely atmosphere and everything was perfectly geared. ACA was well-prepared: everything was ready and waiting, and the induction session went without a hitch. This also made me feel I wasn't just a number and very much part of the team. Internship takeaways I hugely enjoyed my internship, first and foremost, as it allowed me to learn a lot of new things and pick up new skills. I was challenged every day I was there. No two days were ever the same. Personally speaking, I love this kind of variety. I’m a creative spirit by nature. Which is why it was very pleasant to find I was getting a lot of leeway and opportunities to draw on my creative insights in developing the application. As a result, I’m proud to say I was able to give the application a personal touch. This came to the fore in the way I was allowed to flesh out the assignments and puzzles. What’s more, I was provided with all the necessary tools. I was given everything I needed during the course of the development of the app, as long as I was able to argue my case as to why I needed them. In addition, I was able to rely on excellent support right throughout the process. I was never directed, but gently steered in a different direction or informed as and when necessary. This also allowed me to learn a lot, simply by trying things out by myself. Trial and error. The thing is to try and strike the right balance: getting stuck on a problem for two hours doesn't do anybody any good. Don't be afraid to try and figure things out by yourself, but also don't be afraid to ask questions when you need help! Alongside the personal effort I put in, the team I joined did their utmost to make me feel welcome and appreciated in these digital times. Everybody was helpful and open to a bit of leisure and relaxation when it was called for. Lifestyle Something which is definitely underrated is maintaining a sane and healthy lifestyle during these digital times. Mental welfare has a direct impact on our performance, including that of interns. In times of corona, it is not always easy to be mentally on top form at all times. So be sure to use your own initiative to keep your mental well-being in shape! Speaking for myself, I got into exercising (running/walking) big time, precisely because it gave me that mental and physical boost. Obviously things are different for each and every one of us and we all have different interests, but to me sports and exercise are a big part of life as a developer. So, if you spend most of your working time sitting behind a computer screen, my advice would be to find an active hobby that works for you. You will soon notice and feel the benefit! The final stretch: the final defense of your internship The pinnacle of the internship has to be the final defense. Perhaps not the main element of your internship in terms of the grades you get in your final report, but most certainly the most important thing in terms of your future career. You will usually have a number of people calling round to hear what you have to say. People who are able to open doors for you in the form of a job. So be sure to put the time and effort needed into your final defense! Now, a final defense doesn’t have to be grueling or stressful. So come in well-prepared and make sure you start on time. Relieve yourself of that stress. My ACE internship coaches were very helpful to me in this respect. I was able to stage a dry run of what was to be my eventual presentation to the jury. Let me tell you, the difference between my dry run and my actual presentation couldn't have been greater. Which was all down to the structured feedback I received in response to my dry-run, both in terms of content and in terms of my presentation skills. Seize on this opportunity to gather feedback to fine-tune your presentation! Your grades and upcoming audience will thank you for it. ;-) In the end, my presentation to the jury went without a hitch and I graduated with flying colors. Thankfully, the story didn't end there. I was offered a steady job at ACA. After my internship experience, starting my career at the ACA Group was a no-brainer. My first months at ACA After some well-deserved rest and recreation, the real work started on 16 August. This was my first real working day at ACA Group. That day I received a new induction session, again hosted by the HR team. During my first week, I was given time to get up to speed with the existing systems and environments. Whenever something wasn't quite clear, everybody was happy to answer my questions. The second week was time to embark on my duties as part of an actual project. For this first assignment, I was given the opportunity to work on the ACA Website project, which was aimed at restyling the company website in the guise of a new technology stack in JAMstack. As this project was in keeping with my internship assignment, I was very swiftly able to get really stuck in. Yet, each day was different, with a lot of scope to learn from seasoned developers. The general project activities were a joy, and we even went out to dinner with all the team members at one point. I’m delighted to say I look back on what was a formative and positive experience. Alongside this assignment, which chiefly focused on front-end duties, I was also given the opportunity to work on IntraBLOX. This project is being built around Liferay DXP, a solution for which ACA Group is justly a Platinum Partner. IntraBLOX is an SaaS intranet platform developed in-house which makes Liferay as a product more accessible to SMEs. I learned a lot about Liferay DXP as a platform on this project. There was also plenty of variety between front-end and back-end duties, so my work was similarly varied. After this project, I also got the opportunity to earn my first certification as a “Liferay DXP 7.3 Back-End Developer”. I have to say, it was nice to be able to delve back into the books. ;-) I’m certainly keen to earn further certificates in the future. It’s a great way to keep up with the latest technological innovations brought to Liferay as a platform. Personal development growth One thing I noticed very early on after my first couple of weeks on the job is the fact that ACA as a company places a great emphasis on the personal development of its employees. ACA goes by the on-the-job coaching concept, which helps people give the very best they have to offer. Along with your coach, who is someone from your own team, concrete action points are defined that are designed to push your personal growth, depending on your own commitment and dedication. This also gives you constructive feedback on how you are doing as part of the project activities. As to the future, I have every intention of giving it all I have, both in terms of the projects I get to work on and in terms of my personal development. For now, this has been a fantastic start to my adventure at ACA Group! And this certainly won't be the last you hear from me. ;-) Interested in an internship at ACA Group? {% module_block module "widget_6d8735fb-131c-4276-abf8-b0ece592ca55" %}{% module_attribute "buttons" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}[{"appearance":{"link_color":"light","primary_color":"primary","secondary_color":"primary","tertiary_color":"light","tertiary_icon_accent_color":"dark","tertiary_text_color":"dark","variant":"primary"},"content":{"arrow":"right","icon":{"alt":null,"height":null,"loading":"disabled","size_type":null,"src":"","width":null},"tertiary_icon":{"alt":null,"height":null,"loading":"disabled","size_type":null,"src":"","width":null},"text":"Take a look at our internship page"},"target":{"link":{"no_follow":false,"open_in_new_tab":false,"rel":"","sponsored":false,"url":{"content_id":226491452602,"href":"https://25145356.hs-sites-eu1.com/internships","href_with_scheme":null,"type":"CONTENT"},"user_generated_content":false}},"type":"normal"}]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "child_css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "definition_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "field_types" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{"buttons":"group","styles":"group"}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "isJsModule" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}true{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "label" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "module_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}201493994716{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "path" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"@projects/aca-group-project/aca-group-app/components/modules/ButtonGroup"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "schema_version" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}2{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_objects" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"NOT_SMART"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "wrap_field_tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"div"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% end_module_block %}

Reading time 6 min

ACA Group Team

Friday, June 7th, was a day many ACA members had marked in red on their calendars. It was Ship-IT Day, the annual hackathon where multidisciplinary teams work on innovative solutions for customer challenges. The day was filled with excitement, culminating in impressive results and a well-deserved winner. Read the full report below. Ship-IT Day started early this year. As participants arrived at the ACA offices in Hasselt, they were greeted by the aroma of fresh coffee and pastries. Conversations in the kitchen buzzed with excitement and determination. Everyone seemed ready to tackle the day's challenges. AI as the Common Thread in Ship-IT Projects After a refreshing breakfast, the eight project teams got to work. As with the previous edition , AI and LLMs (Large Language Models) were central to most projects. Here’s a brief overview of the eight project teams: Energie.be - Support the customer support DEMAZE your legacy Oracle Fluvius - “Stroomlijn” insights: FAQ optimizer Fluvius - Flow in “De Stroomlijn” Umani Group Flexer - CV matching S-Lim - AI-powered visual notifications for local government Digitalizing of task cards and E2E cleaning service journey in a B2B context YouGO soccer app - AI gamification For more details on the scope of these projects, check out our first blog post: Ship-IT Day 2024: Discover the 8 Innovative Projects. Checking In on Team Status (and Stress Levels) By midday, the office was unusually quiet despite the activity level of all project teams. Was this a good or bad sign? We decided to check in on each team's progress and stress levels. 1. Energie.be - Support the customer support This project team aims to provide extra support to Energie.be's customer support team by centralizing customer data from various systems into a convenient widget in Freshdesk. "After a brief kick-off meeting with the client to clarify all needs and expectations, we first conducted data mapping to identify the necessary data formats", explains Michiel Sioen. "This allowed us to start building the frontend. We already have several standalone elements, and we should be able to present a working widget before the end of the day." "Ship-IT is fantastic because it allows you to explore new things with colleagues you don't usually work with", says Michiel. "It's exciting to build a proof of concept in one day that can provide immediate value to a client." 2. DEMAZE your legacy Oracle This project team aims to create an LLM-based code assistant to help developers navigate legacy codebases more easily. "We want to be able to ask AI questions about an existing codebase so we can understand its structure faster and make changes or additions more quickly", explains Pieter Vandeperre. "We started by testing different AI models to understand codebases. The feedback we received was quite good. We also verified the results with the original developer of the codebase, who confirmed their accuracy. So, we're optimistic." Pieter participates in Ship-IT every year with great enthusiasm. "I see it as a hands-on training to discover new technologies and methods", he says. 3. Fluvius - “Stroomlijn” Insights: FAQ Optimizer This project team aims to use AI to analyze incoming customer questions and interactions at Fluvius, allowing them to more accurately and quickly detect the top 10 current customer queries and automatically generate FAQ articles. "We first solidified the concept internally and then validated it with two Fluvius representatives present at the ACA office in Ghent", says Jo Corthals. "We're in a good position now. The data anonymization and structuring are complete, and the frontend is ready to receive the data. Now, we're focusing on data processing." For Jo, who usually prefers a background role, this Ship-IT Day is a step out of his comfort zone. "It's also a perfect opportunity to provide added value for our client", Jo adds. 4. Fluvius - Flow in “De Stroomlijn” The second project for Fluvius is also progressing smoothly. This team focuses on generating summaries of past customer interactions at “De Stroomlijn”, providing helpdesk staff with quick insights into customer context and sensitivities. "Everything is going according to plan, and the client is pleased with our progress", says Jelle Cayman. "We'll be presenting a concept, part of which we've already developed." 5. Umani Group Flexer - CV Matching This project team aims to build an AI assistant for Umani Group to automatically match candidates with job vacancies. "Additionally, we want to incorporate OCR functionality to process textual information from scanned documents or images", says Alexander Frimout. "We're also developing a chatbot that provides candidates with targeted information about specific vacancies and directs them to jobs that match their profiles." The six-member team is also supported today by a representative from Umani Group. "That is very productive", Alexander notes, "as it ensures we have first-hand information to tailor our solution perfectly to the client's needs." Together with his five teammates, Alexander is confident they will deliver an impressive final product: "We're going to blow everyone away!" 6. S-Lim - AI-powered visual notifications for local government S-Lim is collaborating with ACA to develop a new app for cities and municipalities. This project team aims to create a proof of concept for a smart reporting feature that uses AI to analyze a photo, categorize the issue automatically, and forward it to the municipality. "We started by setting up the project and discussing the designs and user interface", says Jeffrey Vanelderen. "The design is now finalized, and the camera functionality and permissions are in place. Currently, we're working on interfacing with the AI model to see what information it returns and optimizing the results. That's the toughest part, but once we succeed, we'll deliver a great proof of concept." Jeffrey enjoys the opportunity to see a new project through from start to finish during Ship-IT. "As a mobile developer, you're usually brought into an ongoing project. It's nice to start from scratch for once; you learn a lot from that." 7. Digitalizing of task cards and E2E cleaning service journey in a B2B context This project team aims to streamline a cleaning company's operations by digitizing the current time-consuming and error-prone briefing process, which involves a lot of paperwork, to increase efficiency. "The idea is for cleaning staff to receive targeted cleaning instructions on their smartphones based on their location", explains Stijn Schutyser. "We started by mapping out the current process and identifying areas for digital optimization", Stijn continues. "We've made significant progress. There’s still work to be done on the UI and UX because we want it to look attractive and be user-friendly." Last year, Stijn's team won Ship-IT Day, and he hopes for the same outcome this year. 8. YouGO soccer app - AI gamification The Mobile Flutter team at ACA sent some of its members to create a proof of concept for YouGO soccer's training app. “We want to make the existing exercises more dynamic and interactive”, says Stijn Huygh. “We started by outlining and distributing the work packages. Some parts are on schedule, while others are progressing slower than expected. The biggest challenge is the accuracy of ball detection. By the end of the day, we hope to convert one exercise into a more dynamic version.” By participating in Ship-IT Day 2024, Stijn hopes to gain first-hand experience in how machine learning can enhance user experience and enable new features in mobile development. Who won Ship-IT Day 2024? At exactly 5:00 PM, Stijn Van den Enden kicked off the closing ceremony. Each project team had five minutes to pitch their work and demonstrate the final result. Despite some teams needing a couple of attempts to get their demos working, the final results were impressive. It’s remarkable how much the multidisciplinary ACA teams can achieve in just one day. However, there can only be one winner, determined by a quick vote using a mobile voting app. Ultimately, the S-Lim project team took home the victory along with well-deserved shopping and dining vouchers. Their functional demo, which offered high potential value for the client, earned them a whopping 40% of the votes. A score any political party would envy with election Sunday approaching! See you next year for another edition of Ship-IT Day!

Reading time 5 min

ACA Group Team

Many school graduates take their first career steps at ACA Group. And they often stick around for a long time. Annelies Faes is one of them. She started at ACA as a developer and is now a subteam tech lead and coach. In this interview, she explains how ACA offers plenty of opportunities for young IT professionals. 🎓⬇️ An interview with Annelies, tech lead at ACA Group! Hi Annelies, can you tell us when and how you joined the ACA Group? "I got to know ACA during my time as a student in Leuven. Carl Salaets, who was a few years ahead of me, enthusiastically shared his experiences about his internship at ACA. His stories about the unique culture , values , and vibe at the company triggered my curiosity. When I had to find an internship in 2016, I was sure: I had to get into ACA. I didn't even apply anywhere else. So, you can imagine my excitement when ACA confirmed my placement! During my internship, it quickly became clear that Carl's stories were true. I felt right at home at ACA . A year later, I was offered the opportunity to start as a developer in the 'Collectiv' pod (ACA’s custom software development team ). That was more than six years ago, and I'm still happy here." You started as a developer, you say, but you've since taken on a new role? "That's right. Today, I'm the tech lead of one of the two subteams in our project team. This means I coordinate the operations of our subteam and maintain the technical overview of the application we manage for our client amfori . The application is so extensive that we're divided into teams because it's impossible to oversee it as a whole. I serve as the point of contact and the link between our subteam and the rest of the project team. Additionally, I still work as a developer, although I consciously try not to be directly involved in developing stories anymore. My main focus is on supporting the team as best as I can to ensure everything runs smoothly." How did the transition to your new role as subteam tech lead unfold? "In my first few years, I worked on various short and long-term projects. I also spent some time in the mobile team. Thanks to this variety and the opportunity to switch internally, I gradually discovered what I find interesting and where my strengths lie. Since 2021, I am working on the sustainability platform of amfori. About a year and a half later, I was asked if I wanted to become the subteam tech lead for this project. Although I had the ambition to progress, I needed some time to consider it. The assurance that I would receive the necessary support, especially in the beginning, convinced me to take the leap." You mentioned the positive stories you heard about ACA during your student days. Now you've been working here for over six years. What do you find so great about working at ACA? "Several things. Firstly, I love the professionalism and the customer-first approach that prevails here. The focus on quality is real. Everyone is 100% committed and feels personally and as a team responsible to provide the best possible solution for the customer . Additionally, I'm continually amazed by the camaraderie within ACA . There's always someone willing to help when needed, not just within our team but also beyond. Moreover, you're encouraged here to take initiative and suggest your ideas ." You've been working on the application for the client amfori for a while now. Do you find enough challenges there to keep your work interesting? "Oh, absolutely! Every new feature block brings its own set of challenges. It's rarely straightforward. It always starts with the question: 'What is the exact need of the customer, and how can we best solve and implement it in the existing application?' There's never a one-size-fits-all solution; it's always tailored. The quest for the best possible solution and actually achieving it is very rewarding." ACA also organizes a lot of team-building activities. Do you participate in those? "Definitely! Nowadays, there are many fun activities organized. The annual weekend with the entire ACA team is always the highlight . I remember my first ACA weekend in Porto very well. I hadn't even officially started yet, but I was already invited to join. That weekend was one of the most memorable editions so far 🥳 . Not only the location and the beautiful weather but also the fun activities and the vibrant nightlife in this world city made it unforgettable." How do you see yourself evolving within ACA Group in the coming years? "Now that I'm comfortable in my role as a subteam tech lead, I'm looking forward to taking on the additional role as a coach in the coming period. We have a large team, and when someone new joins, they are coached by someone from our team. As a coach, you act as a sounding board for your colleagues and work together on the areas they want to improve. The opportunity to become a coach came at the right time for me, as it always seems to happen here. Opportunities always arise when I feel ready for them. I'm excited to provide additional guidance and support to future colleagues." Do you want to experience the career opportunities at ACA Group? ⭐ {% module_block module "widget_0b90d8f6-339e-405e-a3d0-a4cff1c66173" %}{% module_attribute "buttons" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}[{"appearance":{"link_color":"light","primary_color":"primary","secondary_color":"primary","tertiary_color":"light","tertiary_icon_accent_color":"dark","tertiary_text_color":"dark","variant":"primary"},"content":{"arrow":"right","icon":{"alt":null,"height":null,"loading":"disabled","size_type":null,"src":"","width":null},"tertiary_icon":{"alt":null,"height":null,"loading":"disabled","size_type":null,"src":"","width":null},"text":"Check out jobs"},"target":{"link":{"no_follow":false,"open_in_new_tab":false,"rel":"","sponsored":false,"url":{"content_id":229022099665,"href":"https://25145356.hs-sites-eu1.com/en/jobs","href_with_scheme":null,"type":"CONTENT"},"user_generated_content":false}},"type":"normal"}]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "child_css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "definition_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "field_types" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{"buttons":"group","styles":"group"}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "isJsModule" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}true{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "label" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "module_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}201493994716{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "path" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"@projects/aca-group-project/aca-group-app/components/modules/ButtonGroup"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "schema_version" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}2{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_objects" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"NOT_SMART"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "wrap_field_tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"div"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% end_module_block %}

Reading time 5 min

ACA Group Team

On Friday 7 June, ACA Group will once again organize the annual Ship-IT Day, a hackathon where various ACA teams work on innovative ideas for and with the customer. This seventh edition promises to be another day full of creativity and collaboration. This year, seven project teams are competing for the coveted title of winner of Ship-IT Day 2024. Not surprisingly, AI and LLMs are the common thread running through most projects this year. You will discover them all in this blog. What is Ship-IT Day? Ship-IT Day is all about collaboration and innovation . On this day, multidisciplinary ACA teams use their knowledge and expertise to come up with innovative solutions for internal or external challenges. The goal is to present a first proof of concept (POC) by the end of the day, after which a winner is chosen. Why Ship-IT Day? Ship-IT Day gives ACA team members the chance to work on innovative ideas that could potentially grow into concrete solutions. It is a unique opportunity to build knowledge and explore new possibilities, away from daily projects. This stimulates innovation within the company and gives creative ideas the space to flourish. The 8 projects of Ship-IT Day 2024 🚀 1. Energie.be - Support the Customer Support The customer support team at Energie.be receives tickets through Freshdesk, but they don’t have direct access to important customer information like previous support tickets or recent bills. This project aims to solve that problem by building an application that gathers customer information from various data sources. The project team plans to develop an app that integrates with Freshdesk and provides a comprehensive overview of all relevant customer information. In the future, a Large Language Model (LLM) could be used to summarize this information and offer more specific insights based on the nature of the query. 💼 Customer : Energie.be 2. DEMAZE - Your Legacy Oracle Navigating an existing codebase can be challenging due to outdated or missing documentation. This project aims to create a code assistant that provides targeted guidance on architecture and starting points using the latest generations of Large Language Models (LLMs). This will make it easier to find your way through legacy codebases. 💼 Customer : Confidential 3. Flow in "De Stroomlijn" Fluvius ' customer contact center, De Stroomlijn (The Streamline), often finds that customers have to repeatedly explain their problems when being transferred between different representatives. Although the CRM system documents all interactions, it is often disorganized, and helpdesk staff does not have the time to review all cases for each customer. This is frustrating for both customers and employees. This project aims to solve this issue for Fluvius by generating summaries of previous interactions, including an indication of customer satisfaction. This way, helpdesk staff can quickly understand the context and any sensitivities, allowing them to assist more efficiently and effectively. The ultimate goal is to reduce call duration and increase customer satisfaction. 💼 Customer: Fluvius 4. Stroomlijn Insights: FAQ Optimizer Fluvius lacks a clear view of the top 10 current customer questions they receive. Identifying the most important questions is often based on intuition or time-consuming manual work. This project aims to automatically analyze incoming questions and interactions to more accurately and quickly detect what customers are asking. By using AI, Fluvius can gain quicker insights into current issues and the impact of recent events. The ultimate goal is to automatically detect the most pressing customer questions and generate corresponding FAQ articles to improve customer satisfaction and efficiency. 💼 Customer: Fluvius 5. Umani CV Matching Umani Group , an HR consultancy firm, spends a lot of time manually matching CVs with job postings. This project aims to automate this process using LLMs (Large Language Models). A demo environment has already been built based on OpenAI, and the goal is to enhance and expand it. Additionally, the project team will explore whether OCR technology can assist in reading and interpreting handwritten CVs accurately. Introducing a chatbot for candidates could simplify the process and make it more customer-centric. Furthermore, the project will focus on various UX aspects, such as improving the flow, visuals, and information presentation. 💼 Customer : Umani Group Flexer 6. AI-powered visual notifications for local government S-Lim brings together the municipalities of Limburg to collaborate and transform the region into a smart region. Citizens can report issues such as road damage, waste, or other concerns through the websites of cities and municipalities. However, filling out these reports requires many steps and lots of information, which can be discouraging. This project aims to streamline this process by simplifying and making the reporting system more user-friendly. Specifically, the project team aims to develop a feature allowing citizens to easily upload photos of issues. These photos will be analyzed by AI to simplify the reporting forms and swiftly address the problems. The technical focus will be on image recognition, AI, and integrating with back-office systems like GreenValley, TopDesk, and 3P. 💼 Customer : s-Lim 7. Digitization of task cards and E2E cleaning service journey in a B2B context In a secure industrial environment, over 300 buildings need to be cleaned by approximately 75 employees, each with specific cleaning requirements and restrictions. The current process is error-prone and cumbersome, involving manual updates and communication via email, as well as physical prints of floor plans with a lot of information manually added. The client aims to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and minimize paper usage. This project team wants to work on a first concept that digitizes and simplifies the current process. 💼 Customer : Confidential 8. YouGO Soccer App - AI Gamification You Go Soccer has a Flutter application for soccer training and wants to expand it with additional features such as real-time video analysis and gamification to make the app more appealing to users. Specifically, this project team aims to implement Google MLkit for position detection and an AI vision model like YoloV8 for real-time ball tracking. Additionally, they intend to develop an algorithm to detect soccer-related actions and gamify the exercises. Also included in the scope of this project are the addition of a point system, tracking reaction times, and selecting different training sessions. 💼 Customer : You GO Soccer App by Thomas Buffel Follow Ship-IT live and be the first to discover the winner! Curious to see which project will win this year? Follow the event live on our social media channels: LinkedIn , X , Instagram and Facebook ! 🏆 With Ship-IT Day, ACA Group continues to innovate and improve, always keeping the customer in mind. Which project is your favorite? Let us know!

Reading time 7 min

ACA Group Team

So, you’re running a successful B2B business and are thinking about selling your products through a web shop. But while examining the possibilities of online commerce, you realize you need to link your invoicing system, payment providers, order management, usability, customer loyalty programs and much more. So: where do you begin? In this blog post, we give some concrete steps on how to get started in B2B e-commerce. The 6 steps to set up B2B e-commerce An e-commerce platform can bring important advantages to you and your customers. But how do you actually get started implementing an e-commerce channel? According to us, there are 6 critical steps in bootstrapping your B2B e-commerce journey. Set your vision goals Build the business case Gather high-level requirements Select partners Prepare your organization Implementation Let’s zoom in on these steps one by one! 1. Set your vision goals To get started with B2B e-commerce, your company should have a clear digital vision around it. Now, your company probably already has some kind of corporate vision or tagline. A B2B paint shop could have a tagline like “We color your world!” . This is not what we mean by “digital vision”. The digital vision of the B2B paint shop could be “We want to be the best online wholesaler in painting products in the EMEA region” . That is a clear digital vision. A vision is important because it sets a mindset and a clear focus . It energizes your co-workers to jump on the same train. Since your B2B company will go through a significant change , you’ll want to keep everyone involved and enthusiastic during this process. However, a digital vision means nothing without clear goals to support it. It goes without saying that these goals should be set according to the S.M.A.R.T. principle (specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-related). A goal according to this principle could be “30% of our total revenue must come from our online channel by the end of 2021” . 2. Build the business case Setting a digital vision and goals is one step, but this is not sufficient to convince the leadership of your organization of your wild e-commerce plans. You’ll need their investment, so you’ll need to come up with a plan. Identify involve the stakeholders Select the KPIs that support your B2B e-commerce goals Establish a baseline for the selected KPIs Model the total cost of ownership Calculate the ROI First, it is important to identify the stakeholders in your e-commerce journey. Involve them in the process, as they will have valuable information for making your business case stronger. Next, set up key performance indicators (KPIs) that support your B2B e-commerce goals. You will only know that you’ve achieved each goal when they are parametrized and measurable through a KPI. Establish a baseline (as is) for your KPIs, as well as the target (to be). You will also need to have an idea of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your B2B e-journey. This is your total investment cost. Consider a TCO over several years and include product licenses, effort from your marketing and content teams, running and maintenance costs, 3rd parties and other costs that impact the TCO. Of course, your partners can help you define and fine tune your TCO. Using the TCO, you can now estimate the return on investment (ROI). Model how your sales will increase, how your customer portfolio will expand, and how your existing costs will decrease. Now you can calculate at what point in time you will have earned back your investment. Don’t panic if your ROI spans over multiple years: Rome wasn’t built in a day either. Last but not least, present the business case to your superiors. Make a nice, colorful presentation and convince them that the time is right and that standing still is deteriorating. 3. Gather high-level requirements Congratulations, your leadership has approved your business case! Up to the next step: gathering the high-level requirements of the to-be B2B e-commerce platform. Thinking of an e-commerce platform, you’d assume that you need only one tool. The truth is, an e-commerce platform is more like an ecosystem with many tools working together. At the core of the ecosystem, you’ll find the e-commerce tool itself, the web shop, with features like faceted search, shopping basket, checkout and personalization. Pay additional attention to the specific B2B features here such as one-click reorder, customer based discounts, bulk pricing and multiple buyer roles. Your e-commerce tool will get its product information from a PIM (Product Information Management) tool that holds all product characteristics, variants, categories and digital assets (pictures, manuals, …). Pricing and discount information is usually kept in an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) tool. Both ERP and PIM synchronize their information to the e-commerce tool. Once a customer purchases and checks out, they’ll pass through a payment gateway. Typically, the e-commerce tool is attached to one or more PSPs (Payment Service Providers). After checkout, the order needs to be fulfilled. This typically happens in an OMS (Order Management System). This also includes a delivery process with track trace and return policies and eventually invoicing. As you can see, there are a lot of tools to be considered. In most cases, e-commerce tools already bundle with some PIM, ERP and OMS features out of the box. These can work in trivial cases, but you should always validate if they support the more complex processes as well, such as split shipments, drop-shipping and personalization. 4. Select partners Now that you know the requirements of your platform, you can scan the market for a fitting solution and implementation partner. Although B2B e-commerce platforms have similarities with B2C platforms, it is important that the selected solution has specific B2B functionalities that fit your requirements. You can take a look at the two e-commerce platforms we offer as an example! Furthermore, make sure that your e-commerce platform allows you to start small, but is scalable enough to grow together with your business. Your B2B e-commerce platform will not just work out of the box. It needs to integrate with your internal systems such as your ERP, CRM and your company website or customer portal. This is not something that you will do yourself. Reach out to an implementation partner that is certified in the product and offers you full service end-to-end: not just with the implementation, but also in the preliminary stage, the after-care and even in the change management process. Your implementation partner should be reachable for you, so ideally have a local presence. At the same time, the partner should have a strong relationship with the vendor of the product, so they can rely on the vendor’s expertise and support. Apart from the solution and the partner, you probably need third-party services and tools to support it all. Think of Payment Service Providers, fulfillment partners, a loyalty system, outsourced marketing capacity, … Make sure these integrate well with the selected e-commerce solution and the expertise of the selected partner. 5. Prepare your organization Don’t underestimate this step! Starting with B2B e-business will have an impact on your organization with its people, its roles and its processes. Some processes will need to be redrawn because the way of working in the online channel will differ from the existing offline business. This change also needs to be reflected in the organizational chart and its roles. It is a very good idea to officially introduce an E-commerce Manager role within the organization, even if this role is assigned to an internal resource. The E-commerce manager will streamline actions for the online channel, and they therefore need to be backed by a team of content managers and online marketeers , apart from the purchasing, sales, fulfillment and customer service roles that are probably already in place in your company. Rethinking the existing processes and defining and assigning new roles is not something you do overnight. It is an ongoing process that you fine-tune throughout the implementation phase. 6. Implement Once your organization is prepared for the change, it is time to actually implement the e-commerce platform, together with your implementation partner. The implementation process should be iterative and incremental . Your first task is to identify the different phases in the project. Think of what we said earlier: you want to start small. So start with identifying the absolute minimum viable product (MVP) that you can go live with. For this MVP, identify the business and functional requirements and decide on the design. Then start building, but again: do it in small iterations , so you have room to adjust the scope and focus based on newly gained insights. Go live with your first MVP and measure its success. This will give you valuable input for the upcoming MVPs of the platform. Make sure you rely on your implementation partner for the after-care as well: get yourself properly coached and trained in using the platform, have a maintenance agreement in place which also leaves room for incremental improvements after the initial go-live. Conclusion You see that adopting e-commerce for your B2B business is quite a journey, but it’s really worth the effort. Many businesses already took the step and benefited greatly from it. So why wouldn’t you? Hopefully, this blog post has given some guidance in the different steps that you need to take to get started with B2B e-commerce. We’ve greatly expanded on this topic in a whitepaper, which you can download for free.

Reading time 7 min

ACA Group Team

The Global Accessibility Awareness Day takes place every year on the third Thursday of May with the aim of putting accessibility in the spotlight. For ACA Group, the accessibility, user-friendliness and inclusion of technology have long been an important focus. In this blog, you will discover some of our projects in which accessibility was high on the list of priorities. The intention of the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is to get as many people as possible to think and talk about how technology can be made accessible to people with a disability. In this way, the initiative wants to contribute to a more inclusive digital world. What is accessibility? Digital accessibility means that digital technologies, such as online tools, applications and electronic documents are designed in such a way that they are accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. This allows them, like everyone else, to continue to participate in the digital economy and society. One of the most important aspects of accessibility is that people with visual, auditory, cognitive or physical disabilities can effectively perceive, understand, navigate and interact with digital content. ACA Group's vision on accessibility “Our sustainability policy is much more than our sponsorship of charities,” says Dorien Jorissen , Chief Digital Officer Sustainability Manager at ACA Group. “We strive to analyze and integrate all aspects of sustainability into our operations. Accessibility is also an integral part of our sustainability policy. ” The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) of the United Nations form the basis of the sustainability framework of ACA Group. “We want to propagate this not only in our offices, in our team and with our stakeholders, but also in our digital services and our project methodology ,” says Dorien. “In a rapidly evolving world, in which technology is becoming more and more intertwined with our daily lives, as a leading IT company we are obliged to keep digital accessibility high on the agenda.” Below, a picture of ACA Group winning the DataNews Award 2022 for Most Environmentally Responsible ICT Company of the Year'👇🏻 Accessibility in practice Below you will find three projects from ACA Group for which accessibility was an important design requirement. ⭐️ Mobile app for De Lijn with a focus on accessibility Accessibility is very important to De Lijn . Not only in terms of easy access to their vehicles, but also in terms of their digital applications, such as the mobile app. The challenge The transport company wants their app to be accessible and user-friendly for everyone, including people with a visual impairment. They often rely on public transport and must therefore be able to use the app easily. “In the past, people with a visual impairment could use a separate app that could better read out routes and real-time information,” says Joren Vos , Mobile Solution Engineer at ACA Group. “However, this app was outdated. In addition, De Lijn's general app also needed an update.” The solution So there was a need for an update of both the regular De Lijn app and the BLS app . That is why it was decided to integrate the BLS app and the general De Lijn app into one user-friendly app for everyone. “In the new design of the app, we focused on easy and user-friendly navigation,” explains Joren. “We replaced the old complex navigation structure with an easy-to-use navigation bar at the bottom of the screen. We also realized a clear context when reading from the screen, the support of larger text sizes and a voice-over." “We also improved the real-time information and added a congestion barometer. This allows a traveler to see how crowded it is on a particular bus or tram.” The result Thanks to the new menu structure, the updated De Lijn app makes it much easier for everyone to buy tickets, map out public transport routes and search for stops and destinations. Thanks to new functionality such as voice over, exit warning notifications and the support for larger font sizes, people with a visual impairment can also easily use the app. After an accessibility assessment by Eleven Ways and having obtained the required label, the De Lijn app can now officially call itself 'accessible'. ⭐️ ACA website according to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines In 2020 we wanted to give the ACA website a redesign. Stijn Schutyser , today UI/UX designer at ACA Website, was involved in the project as a copywriter and SEO Specialist at the time. He says: “We think it is important to involve our colleagues in every phase of such a project. That is why we sent an initial proposal internally during the preparation phase. One of the ACA colleagues suggested that we should pay extra attention to accessibility for people with a disability from the start. Since inclusion is an important focus of our sustainability policy, we immediately started working on this fantastic idea.” Web development according to international standard “We decided to develop the website according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines,” explains Stijn. “It was the first time we would develop a website according to this international standard. That made it quite a challenge for our technical team: studying the guidelines, checking how we could best implement them, the coding, …” “One of the most important targets was to make the website user-friendly for people who use a screen reader that reads the text on a website. For example, we have ensured that a screen reader jumps directly to the main content of a page at the touch of a button, without reading out the unnecessary content in the menu bar, etc..” Audit by Eleven Ways and AnySurfer “After the development and launch of the new website, we had it tested by Eleven Ways ,” says Stijn. “They gave us some work points that we had to tackle in order to comply with the guidelines. After these adjustments, we had the site audited by AnySurfer with the aim of receiving the AnySurfer label level AA. That label proves that your website has been tested by AnySurfer and that it meets the WCAG standard to speak of an accessible website.” By the way, did you know that the ACA website has a Lighthouse accessibility score of 98, an almost perfect score. Accessibility will continue to be an important design parameter for our website in the future. ⭐️ How we improve the accessibility of PDF files Accessibility is not only important for websites and apps. “Every piece of content should be accessible to everyone, including PDF files,” says Ibn Renders , Lead Branding at ACA Group. “That is why at ACA Group we ensure that our PDF files are adapted for people with a visual impairment who use a screen reader.” Below, Ibn gives three tips to make PDF files accessible to everyone: Accessibility check: To improve the accessibility of our PDF documents, we use the 'accessibility check' feature of Acrobat Pro. This tool checks your document and indicates which things you should adjust. Reading order: It is important to structure your PDF file with the correct headings and paragraphs. If you don't, your document will become one big chaos for people with a screen reader. With Acrobat Pro, the accessibility options make it easy to determine the desired reading order. Alt text: Screen readers don't know what's on an image, audio, or video element. Fortunately, you can help them by adding an alt text with a short description of the relevant audiovisual element. Want to know more about accessibility for PDF files? Read the blog article “3 easy tips to make your PDF files accessible to everyone” . Conclusion In an increasingly digital world, we need to ensure that everyone, including people with disabilities, continues to have access to online and offline digital solutions and content. As a leading IT company, we want to take our responsibility with ACA Group to integrate accessibility into our services, our methodology and our solutions. We are already making a lot of efforts to achieve this, but it remains a continuous effort to do even better. Looking for an IT partner who really understands you? {% module_block module "widget_721f158c-b460-4017-9a15-8780ca97dc15" %}{% module_attribute "buttons" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}[{"appearance":{"link_color":"light","primary_color":"primary","secondary_color":"primary","tertiary_color":"light","tertiary_icon_accent_color":"dark","tertiary_text_color":"dark","variant":"primary"},"content":{"arrow":"right","icon":{"alt":null,"height":null,"loading":"disabled","size_type":null,"src":"","width":null},"tertiary_icon":{"alt":null,"height":null,"loading":"disabled","size_type":null,"src":"","width":null},"text":"Let's talk"},"target":{"link":{"no_follow":false,"open_in_new_tab":false,"rel":"","sponsored":false,"url":{"content_id":230950468795,"href":"https://25145356.hs-sites-eu1.com/en/contact","href_with_scheme":null,"type":"CONTENT"},"user_generated_content":false}},"type":"normal"}]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "child_css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "definition_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "field_types" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{"buttons":"group","styles":"group"}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "isJsModule" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}true{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "label" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "module_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}201493994716{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "path" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"@projects/aca-group-project/aca-group-app/components/modules/ButtonGroup"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "schema_version" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}2{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_objects" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"NOT_SMART"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "wrap_field_tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"div"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% end_module_block %}

Reading time 4 min

ACA Group Team

Drupal, a powerful and popular Content Management System (CMS), has been a mainstay for countless websites for over a decade. However, a significant milestone is fast approaching for Drupal 7 users: the impending end-of-life (EOL) on January 5th 2025. This means that Drupal 7 will no longer receive official support or updates from the Drupal community, leaving website owners and developers with a critical decision to make. In this comprehensive blog post, we'll explore the implications of Drupal 7's EOL, the risks of staying on an unsupported platform, and the options available to ensure your website remains secure, functional, and future-proof. What does Drupal 7 end-of-life mean? In the software world, "end-of-life" signifies that a software version will no longer be actively maintained. For Drupal 7, this has several crucial implications: No more security updates: Security vulnerabilities are a constant threat online. Without ongoing security updates, your Drupal 7 website becomes increasingly susceptible to hacks and data breaches. This can have serious consequences, including financial losses, reputational damage, and even legal issues if sensitive data is compromised. Bug fixes left unresolved : Existing bugs and glitches within Drupal 7 will no longer be addressed. This can lead to website malfunctions, compatibility issues with plugins, and a frustrating user experience for both administrators and website visitors. Limited support : The Drupal community will no longer provide official technical assistance for Drupal 7. If you encounter technical problems after EOL, you'll be on your own to find solutions. Risks of staying on Drupal 7 after EOL Continuing to use Drupal 7 after the end-of-life date comes with significant risks that website owners must consider: Increased security threats : Without security updates, your website becomes a prime target for hackers. A successful attack can result in stolen data, disrupted operations, and a loss of trust from your website visitors. Limited functionality: As technology evolves, it will become increasingly difficult to integrate Drupal 7 with newer technologies and plugins. This can limit your website's functionality and hinder your ability to adapt to changing online trends. Compliance issues : When Drupal 7 reaches its end-of-life (EOL), continuing to use it poses significant compliance risks, particularly under GDPR. Businesses handling sensitive data must ensure their CMS is regularly updated and secure to avoid breaches. An unsupported CMS like Drupal 7 fails to meet GDPR requirements, risking hefty fines and penalties. What are your options after Drupal 7 EOL? With the Drupal 7 end-of life fast approaching, it's crucial to consider your options to ensure the long-term success and security of your website: Upgrade to a newer version of drupal : Drupal offers more recent versions with enhanced functionality, improved security, and ongoing support. However, upgrading can be a complex process depending on the complexity of your website. Migrate to a different CMS : Several robust CMS platforms, such as Liferay DXP, offer modern features and strong security practices. Exploring these alternatives can provide a fresh start and unlock new possibilities for your website. Continue using Drupal 7 (not recommended) : While technically possible, this is the least recommended option due to the significant security risks and limitations discussed above. Take action today to secure your Drupal 7 website’s future The upcoming Drupal 7 EOL presents a critical decision point for website owners. We encourage you to learn more about your migration options and take proactive steps to secure your website's future. In our next blog post, we'll explore the benefits of migrating from Drupal 7 to Liferay DXP, a powerful and secure CMS platform that can seamlessly take your website to the next level. In the meantime, you can schedule a call for a free migration consultation with our team of experts. Don't wait until it's too late! Take action now to ensure your website remains secure, functional, and competitive after Drupal 7 end-of-life. Do you want to navigate the Drupal 7 EOL transition smoothly? {% module_block module "widget_a92bc401-d6ad-4b8d-ab07-af5c75b79f92" %}{% module_attribute "buttons" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}[{"appearance":{"link_color":"light","primary_color":"primary","secondary_color":"primary","tertiary_color":"light","tertiary_icon_accent_color":"dark","tertiary_text_color":"dark","variant":"primary"},"content":{"arrow":"right","icon":{"alt":null,"height":null,"loading":"disabled","size_type":null,"src":"","width":null},"tertiary_icon":{"alt":null,"height":null,"loading":"disabled","size_type":null,"src":"","width":null},"text":"Contact our experts now"},"target":{"link":{"no_follow":false,"open_in_new_tab":false,"rel":"","sponsored":false,"url":{"content_id":null,"href":"","href_with_scheme":"","type":"CONTENT"},"user_generated_content":false}},"type":"normal"}]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "child_css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "css" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "definition_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "field_types" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}{"buttons":"group","styles":"group"}{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "isJsModule" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}true{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "label" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "module_id" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}201493994716{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "path" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"@projects/aca-group-project/aca-group-app/components/modules/ButtonGroup"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "schema_version" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}2{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_objects" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}null{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"NOT_SMART"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "wrap_field_tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"div"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% end_module_block %}

Reading time 6 min

ACA Group Team

Many school graduates take their first career steps at ACA Group. And they often stick around for a long time. Annelies Faes is one of them. She started at ACA as a developer and is now a subteam tech lead and coach. In this interview, she explains how ACA offers plenty of opportunities for young IT professionals. 🎓⬇️ Hi Katrien, we can safely say that you are one of the seniors at ACA Group. Was it your first job at the time? “No, actually not. I started working for ACA in July 2006. I will not forget that, because my son was just born then. Before that I had already worked for a few other software companies that have also been customers of ACA Group for a long time.” In what role did you start at ACA Group? “I started here in a dual role as a business analyst and project manager for custom made software projects. They are both very exciting roles. As an analyst, you sit down with the customer to map out all the challenges and explore how they can be solved and molded into a tailor-made business solution. An important task is to translate this into user stories. As an analyst, you are the bridge between the customer and the development team. As a project manager, it is your job to steer the project in the right direction. You keep a good overview of the budgets, the timing, the capacity and the daily activities. In addition, you set up metrics to monitor everything closely and take timely action in case of possible obstacles. Risk management is an important task for every project manager, just like communication with the customer.” What attracted you to ACA Group at the time? “In my previous consultancy jobs, I was placed at a client for a long time, sometimes several years. As a result, I had little contact with my direct colleagues. That is completely different at ACA Group. From day one I had a lot of contact and support from my ACA colleagues. You mainly work here in an ACA project team, whether or not in collaboration with customer specialists, but at the same time you can still count on the support of an internal community of ACA colleagues. That creates a real bond. Another plus is that you can work here in one of the innovative ACA offices or from home. That is also very nice.” What else characterizes ACA Group? “First and foremost the people. Every ACA employee has great expertise and passion. Everyone strives for a high-quality delivery according to the predetermined timings and budgets. We all put our shoulders under it. In my previous jobs I regularly saw software projects go wrong and be stopped, but at ACA Group we always strive to deliver according to the expectations of the customer. Moreover, you get a lot of responsibility and career opportunities here. You really are in charge of your career. You can not only grow in your position here, but also to other positions if you wish. Everything is possible here, it's up to you to make it happen.” How about you, are you still working as an analyst and project manager today? “Yes, as a matter of fact I do, but I am also part of the leadership team of the business unit that develops custom software for our customers. We used to work mainly in Java, but now we also use Python, .NET and Low-Code. Within the business unit I mainly focus on the demand capacity aspect. This means that I look at how we want to grow further, which profiles we need by when and who is the best match for specific projects. It also involves a lot of guidance to teams and people.” What does an average working week look like for you? I provide a lot of operational support to the various custom development teams. I also closely monitor the recruitment and help with the interviewing of candidates. The realization of the strategic projects and goals of our department also regularly require my attention. In addition, I work as a project manager for IDEWE projects. And that involves a lot: the daily follow-up of development activities, communication with the customer, planning, risk management, and so on.” The cooperation between IDEWE and ACA Group goes back a long time. What have you already achieved? "A lot! I believe we have been working for IDEWE for thirteen years. In that time we have realized many different projects . At the time, we started with a project for the development of a document management system based on Alfresco. That system keeps track of all digital medical records of employees and is still actively used. It contains millions of documents. Today we work for IDEWE with a considerable budget. The team has grown from two developers and a project manager to a permanent team of 16 people, where we scale up when needed. We are constantly working on new solutions, for example to make the work of IDEWE's internal employees easier, to identify the risks at employers, and to support employees. In the past, for example, we developed the Health Empower app , which guides employees with chronic pain to better deal with their pain during work. During the corona epidemic, we also provided a platform to support the vaccination campaigns. Users can easily request and follow up on a vaccination, whereby invoicing is also arranged automatically. Today, this application is mainly used for flu vaccines, but it can also be used for planning and monitoring other vaccinations.” Hi Katrien, we can safely say that you are one of the seniors at ACA Group. Was it your first job at the time? “It's a real partnership. IDEWE has its own team of analysts and developers. With the ACA employees, we are a full part of their IT department. We constantly align things with each other in terms of analysis, architecture and technical solutions. Together we look at how we can best solve the challenges.” When you look back on those 17 years at ACA, what are you most proud of? “I once worked for Isabel for four years. I started there as an analyst for various projects. At one point I was asked to help with the management and further development of their software factory. I also had to coach and guide their internal people. This is how the dual role that I perform today at ACA Group came about.” How do you look back on your career at ACA Group today? “I have seen ACA change a lot. When I started here, 35 people worked here, now we have more than 250. The structure has changed a lot, but the basic values ​​are still the same: passion, craftsmanship, quality, drive, teamwork, innovation . That culture of achieving the very best together already appealed to me at the time and it still does today. It is the ideal habitat for people with enthusiasm and ambition.” 🌟 Do you also want to be part of our passionate team? Then be sure to check out our vacancies !

Reading time 3 min

ACA Group Team

As the end-of-life (EOL) for Drupal 7 approaches on January 5th 2025, website owners face a critical decision: how to keep their sites secure, functional, and competitive . While upgrading to a newer version of Drupal is an option, migrating to a more robust and future-proof platform like Liferay DXP offers several compelling advantages. Here are five key reasons why migrating from Drupal 7 to Liferay DXP is the smarter move: 1. Enhanced security and peace of mind With Drupal 7 reaching EOL, security updates will stop, leaving your website vulnerable to hacking attempts and data breaches. Liferay DXP, on the other hand, prioritizes security with ongoing updates and a commitment to protecting your data. Liferay holds a range of certifications like ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, and CSA Star Level 1 and Level 2 . These certifications underscore Liferay's commitment to safeguarding data and maintaining robust security standards . Each year, Liferay undergoes rigorous independent audits conducted by third-party vendors, ensuring they consistently meet and exceed industry best practices in data protection and security. By choosing Liferay DXP , you can focus on your business goals, confident that your website is safeguarded by top-tier security practices. 2. Modern features for a modern digital experience Today's digital landscape demands a CMS that can keep pace. Liferay DXP offers a suite of modern features that Drupal 7 simply can't match, including: Cloud-native architecture : Enjoy effortless scalability and flexible deployment for a truly modern digital experience. Omnichannel marketing tools : Deliver personalized content across all channels, reaching your audience wherever they are. Robust integration capabilities : Seamlessly connect Liferay DXP effortlessly with your existing business tools and technologies, streamlining workflows and boosting efficiency. 3. Scalability to support your growing business As your business thrives, your website needs to adapt. Drupal 7 may struggle to handle significant growth in traffic or data. Liferay DXP, however, is built to scale . Its robust architecture ensures your website can accommodate increasing user numbers and evolving content demands, supporting your business every step of the way. 4. User-friendly experience for everyone Managing a website shouldn't be a headache. Liferay DXP features an intuitive and user-friendly interface and fully accessible back-end , making it easy for both content creators and administrators to navigate the platform. This is a stark contrast to Drupal 7, which can be complex to manage, especially for non-technical users. Liferay DXP empowers your team to focus on creating high-quality content instead of wrestling with a complicated CMS. With features like the visual content editor and Layout Builder for creating personalized experiences effortlessly, it ensures responsiveness without any hassle. 5. A smooth and supported migration process Transitioning to a new platform can seem daunting. However, migrating from Drupal 7 to Liferay DXP is a smooth and well-supported process. We offer a comprehensive range of resources, tools, and even migration support packages to ensure a seamless transition. Our team of experts will guide you every step of the way, minimizing disruption and ensuring a successful migration. The future is now: Embrace the power of Liferay DXP The upcoming EOL of Drupal 7 is a perfect opportunity to upgrade your digital experience. Liferay DXP offers a secure, feature-rich, and scalable platform that empowers your business to thrive in the ever-evolving online world. Don't wait until it's too late. Take action today and see how Liferay DXP can transform your website. Ready to take the next step? 🚀 Schedule a consultation with our migration specialists to discuss your unique needs. Request a demo of Liferay DXP and experience the future of digital experiences firsthand. The security and success of your website are just a click away. Choose Liferay DXP and unlock the full potential of your online presence.

Reading time 7 min

ACA Group Team

Didn’t make it to KubeCon this year? Read along to find out our highlights of the KubeCon / CloudNativeCon conference this year by ACA Group’s Cloud Native team! What is KubeCon / CloudNativeCon? KubeCon (Kubernetes Conference) / CloudNativeCon , organized yearly at EMAE by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), is a flagship conference that gathers adopters and technologists from leading open source and cloud native communities in a location. This year, approximately 5,000 physical and 10,000 virtual attendees showed up for the conference. CNCF is the open source, vendor-neutral hub of cloud native computing, hosting projects like Kubernetes and Prometheus to make cloud native universal and sustainable. Bringing 300+ sessions from partners, industry leaders, users and vendors on topics covering CI/CD, GitOps, Kubernetes, machine learning, observability, networking, performance, service mesh and security. It's clear there's always something interesting to hear about at KubeCon, no matter your area of interest or level of expertise! It's clear that the Cloud Native ecosystem has grown to a mature, trend-setting and revolutionizing game-changer in the industry. All is initiated on the Kubernetes trend and a massive amount of organizations that support, use and have grown their business by building cloud native products or using them in mission-critical solutions. 2022's major themes What struck us during this year’s KubeCon were the following major themes: The first was increasing maturity and stabilization of Kubernetes and associated products for monitoring, CI/CD, GitOps, operators, costing and service meshes, plus bug fixing and small improvements. The second is a more elaborate focus on security . Making pods more secure, preventing pod trampoline breakouts, end-to-end encryption and making full analysis of threats for a complete k8s company infrastructure. The third is sustainability and a growing conscience that systems running k8s and the apps on it consume a lot of energy while 60 to 80% of CPU remains unused. Even languages can be energy (in)efficient. Java is among the most power efficient, while Python apparently is far less due to the nature of the interpreter / compiler. Companies all need to plan and work on decreasing energy footprint in both applications and infrastructure. Autoscaling will play an important role in achieving this. Sessions highlights Sustainability Data centers worldwide consume 8% of all generated electricity worldwide. So we'll need to reflect on the effective usage of our infrastructure and avoid idle time (on average CPU utilization is only between 20 and 40%) when servers are running, make them work with running as many workloads as possible shut down resources when they are not needed by applying autoscaling approaches the coding technology used in your software, some programming languages use less CPU. CICD / GitOps GitOps automates infrastructure updates using a Git workflow with continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CI/CD). When new code is merged, the CI/CD pipeline enacts the change in the environment. Flux is a great example of this. Flux provides GitOps for both apps and infrastructure. It supports GitRepository, HelmRepository, HelmRepository and Bucket CRD as the single source of truth. With A/B or Canary deployments, it makes it easy to deploy new features without impacting all the users. When the deployment fails, it can easily roll back. Checkout the KubeCon schedule page for more information! Kubernetes Even though Kubernetes 1.24 was released a few weeks before the start of the event, not many talks were focused on the Kubernetes core. Most talks were focused on extending Kubernetes (using APIs, controllers, operators, …) or best practices around security, CI/CD, monitoring … for whatever will run within the Kubernetes cluster. If you're interested in the new features that Kubernetes 1.24 has to offer, you can check the official website . Observability Getting insights on how your application is running in your cluster is crucial, but not always practical. This is where eBPF comes into play, which is used by tools such as Pixie to collect data without any code changes. Check out the KubeCon schedule page for more information! FinOps Now that more and more people are using Kubernetes, a lot of workloads have been migrated. All these containers have a footprint. Memory, CPU, storage, … needs to be allocated, and they all have a cost. Cost management was a recurring topic during the talks. Using autoscaling (adding but also removing capacity) to match the required resources and identifying unused resources are part of this new movement. New services like 'kubecost' are becoming increasingly popular. Performance One of the most common problems in a cluster is not having enough space or resources. With the help of a Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA) this can be a thing of the past. A VPA will analyze and store Memory and CPU metrics/data to automatically adjust to the right CPU and memory request limits. The benefits of this approach will let you save money, avoid waste, size optimally the underlying hardware, tune resources on worker nodes and optimize placements of pods in a Kubernetes cluster. Check out the KubeCon schedule page for more information! Service mesh We all know it's extremely important to know which application is sharing data with other applications in your cluster. Service mesh provides traffic control inside your cluster(s). You can block or permit any request that is sent or received from any application to other applications. It also provides Metrics, Specs, Split, ... information to understand the data flow. In the talk, Service Mesh at Scale: How Xbox Cloud Gaming Secures 22k Pods with Linkerd , Chris explains why they choose Linkerd and what the benefits are of a service mesh. Check out the KubeCon schedule page for more information! Security Trampoline pods, sounds fun, right? During a talk by two security researchers from Palo Alto Networks, we learned that they aren’t all that fun. In short, these are pods that can be used to gain cluster admin privileges. To learn more about the concept and how to deal with them, we strongly recommend taking a look at the slides on the KubeCon schedule page ! Lachlan Evenson from Microsoft gave a clear explanation of Pod Security in his The Hitchhiker's Guide to Pod Security talk. Pod Security is a built-in admission controller that evaluates Pod specifications against a predefined set of Pod Security Standards and determines whether to admit or deny the pod from running. — Lachlan Evenson , Principal Program Manager at Microsoft P o d Security is replacing PodSecurityPolicy starting fro m Kubernetes 1.23. So if you are using PodSecurityPolicy, now might be a good time to further research Pod Security and the migration path. In version 1.25, support for PodSecurityPolicy will be removed. If you aren’t using PodSecurityPolicy or Pod Security, it is definitely time to further investigate it! Another one of the recurring themes of this KubeCon 2022 were operators. Operators enable the extension of the Kubernetes API with operational knowledge. This is achieved by combining Kubernetes controllers and watched objects that describe the desired state. They introduce Custom Resource Definitions, custom controllers, Kubernetes or cloud resources and logging and metrics, making life easier for Dev as well as Ops. H owever, during a talk by Kevin Ward from ControlPlane, we learned that there are some risks. Additionally, and more importantly, he also talked about how we can identify those risks with tools such as BadRobot and an operator thread matrix . Checkout the KubeCon schedule page for more information! Scheduling Telemetry Aware Scheduling helps you schedule your workloads based on metrics from your worker nodes. You can for example set a rule to not schedule new workloads on worker nodes with more than 90% used memory. The cluster will take this into account when scheduling a pod. Another nice feature of this tool is that it can also reschedule pods to make sure your rules are kept in line. Checkout the KubeCon schedule page for more information! Cluster autoscaling A great way for stateless workloads to scale cost effectively is to use AWS EC2 Spot, which is spare VM capacity available at a discount. To use Spot instances effectively in a K8S cluster, you should use aws-node-termination-handler . This way, you can move your workloads off of a worker node when Spot decides to reclaim it. Another good tool is Karpenter , a tool to provision Spot instances just in time for your cluster. With these two tools, you can cost effectively host your stateless workloads! Check out the KubeCon schedule page for more information! Event-driven autoscaling Using the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) is a great way to scale pods based on metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, and more. Instead of scaling based on metrics, Kubernetes Event Driven Autoscaling (KEDA) can scale based on events (Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS SQS, …) and it can even scale to 0 unlike HPA. Check out the KubeCon schedule page for more information! Wrap-up We had a blast this year at the conference. We left with an inspired feeling that we'll no doubt translate into internal projects, apply for new customer projects and discuss with existing customers where applicable. Not only that, but we'll brief our colleagues and organize an afterglow session for those interested back home in Belgium. If you appreciated our blog article, feel free to drop us a small message. We are always happy when the content that we publish is also of any value or interest to you. If you think we can help you or your company in adopting Cloud Native, drop me a note at peter.jans@aca-it.be . As a final note we'd like to thank Mona for the logistics, Stijn and Ronny for this opportunity and the rest of the team who stayed behind to keep an eye on the systems of our valued customers.

Reading time 5 min

ACA Group Team

Disclaimer: This content was not created with AI ;-) From April 1st to April 4th our a part of our Cloud team was present at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2025 in London. In this blog, they’re sharing their personal and unfiltered recap of what it's like to have attended KubeCon, the biggest conference of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation!

Reading time 4 min

ACA Group Team

Since 2010, our colleague Filip Callewaert has been active in the field of work management, implementing Confluence as a catalyst for collaboration in companies. On May 2nd, he will be a guest speaker at Team '24 in Las Vegas, Atlassian's annual international summit. It's quite an honor. Just before his departure, we managed to catch him for an interview. Interview with Filip Hi Filip, how excited are you for your talk at Atlassian Team '24? "Very excited. It's a great honor, and I genuinely enjoy doing it. I've given similar talks at various events before, including in the United States. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to speak at the Atlassian summit, but it's always something special. When you look at the program, you'll see many impressive names among the 170 speakers. Most of them are Atlassian employees presenting case studies or partners showcasing their products. I'm one of the few people on the agenda." Can you explain what Atlassian Team '24 is exactly? "Atlassian hosts an annual multi-day international summit for customers, partners, and stakeholders . It's not just a knowledge conference; they also turn it into a real celebration. It's also the highlight of the year for Atlassian itself. In addition to the packed program of inspirational sessions and keynotes, there's a large exhibition hall where all vendors introduce their Atlassian add-ons and products. Many Atlassian community leaders will also be present, getting the opportunity to attend fancy dinners and chat or talk photos with Atlassian's CEO. ACA colleague Kris Dewachter , who is a community leader, will also be participating in Team '24." What will you be discussing during your talk on May 2nd ? "I'll be diving into how Confluence is rapidly evolving, especially thanks to new features like automation, Atlassian Intelligence, whiteboards, and databases . Through a specific case study, I want to demonstrate how these innovations can revolutionize optimization for documentation processes and other workflows within organizations. Since 2022, Confluence has evolved rapidly. The new capabilities can truly be a game-changer in terms of time savings and governance. I truly believe that we're at the dawn of an unprecedented wave of productivity gains for knowledge worker teams. That's the message I hope to convey during my presentation. Additionally, I want to encourage the audience not to cling to old processes but to truly redesign them within the new possibilities of Confluence and the entire Atlassian ecosystem . Because by integrating Confluence with Jira Product Discovery, Loom, Jira Work Management, Atlas, Compass, etc., the whole becomes so much more than the sum of its parts. I also want to underscore the importance of staying well-informed about everything happening within the entire Atlassian ecosystem. By implementing new developments into your internal processes, you can continuously improve them." Besides your role as a speaker, you'll also be able to enjoy Atlassian Team '24 as a participant. What are you hoping to gain personally from it? "First and foremost, I want to attend as many sessions as possible on work management and organizational culture. I'm also curious about the new products and features that will be announced. The agenda is already quite packed. I've already been contacted by several vendors asking to meet during the event. I also want to speak with some partners about their participation in the ACA Team Up event on October 1st in Leuven . Dennis Trevels , another ACA colleague joining Team '24, will help coordinate this on-site. Additionally, the Atlassian summit is ideal for connecting with Atlassian employees. I've noticed that having a strong network with Atlassian insiders really pays off." You just mentioned the ACA Team Up event. What can we expect there? " Team Up is the largest Atlassian event in Belgium . We welcome our customers, prospects, and partners to showcase the latest developments in the Atlassian ecosystem. Alongside an Atlassian keynote, several cases will be presented, including the one I'll be bringing in Las Vegas. Additionally, many vendors will be present to highlight their products. The ACA Team Up event is perfect for quickly discovering the latest Atlassian developments . It's also a great opportunity for companies to exchange experiences on integrating Atlassian products. " Is there anything else you'd like to share? "Although I'm the only ACA representative speaking at Team '24, I want to emphasize that what I present is the result of teamwork. With the entire Amplifly team within ACA, we're constantly developing and implementing the best solutions for our clients. We rely on each other for that. Atlassian also has always had that team focus. After all, they develop collaboration software, and their slogan isn't ' Impossible alone ' for nothing. That focus on collaboration and teamwork applies to me and all my colleagues at ACA." 🚀 Catch all higlights news from Atlassian Team '24 during our ACA Team Up Event in October: More info about the event

Reading time 5 min

ACA Group Team

On November 30, ACA Group will launch their annual Ship-IT Day. During this hackathon, various teams of ACA team members will develop an innovative idea for (and together with) the customer. This year, nine project teams will compete for eternal glory that awaits at the end of the day. Discover all projects here. What is Ship-IT Day? Ship-IT Day is in its sixth edition this year 🎉 . On this day everything revolves around collaboration and innovation . Various multidisciplinary ACA teams (whether or not supplemented with the right experts from the customer) will use their knowledge and expertise on November 30 to come up with innovative solutions for internal or external challenges. The goal is to present a first proof of concept at the end of the day , with a winner selected based on these presentations. Why? With the Ship-IT Day, ACA Group wants to give its employees the opportunity to work on innovative ideas that can form the basis for concrete solutions. It is also a great opportunity to build knowledge and explore new opportunities . The 9 Projects of Ship-IT Day 2023 1. Chatbot course integration in customer portal In the customer portal of one of our clients, employers have access to more than fifty different brochures. However, it is difficult to know where to find specific information. In addition, this customer offers 384 training courses. This also requires a lot of searching to find the right training courses. With this project, the team of eight experts wants to offer a solution to simplify the search for documentation and training for employers . They want to do this by expanding the existing AI tool, transforming it into a web component, and integrating it as a chatbot into the existing customer portal. 2. System integration tests in a CI/CD pipeline During the R D and testing phase of traffic management systems, this company relies heavily on manual testing and actions such as deploys to test environments. In addition to the extra work, problems are also discovered relatively late, making the costs of solving them higher than necessary. The project team of four experts aims to address these issues by introducing end-to-end testing against an integrated backend and frontend, performed in GitHub actions . After a successful run, the software can then be automatically deployed to a test environment. The solution will result in shorter feedback loops and an improvement in product quality . 3. Onboarding portal/platform including gamification Every new ACA member undergoes an onboarding process, and the relevant information is currently distributed across different platforms. This project aims to establish a centralized platform that consolidates all onboarding information . The incorporation of gamification elements adds an extra layer of fun for each incoming employee. Additionally, utilizing the platform enhances HR's ability to efficiently manage follow-ups. 4. Automatic dubbing, transcription and summary of conversations The consultants of one of our clients engage in numerous conversations, each requiring a subsequent report—a time-consuming task. The project team of seven experts will use Speech-To-Text technology to automatically create transcriptions of these conversations in real time . Leveraging Large Language Models, the team can also provide live translations for seamless communication with partners who may not speak Dutch or French. Furthermore, the technology facilitates the automatic generation of summary reports after each conversation. 5. publiq film offering data import via ML publiq manages the communication of public leisure offerings, frequently receiving numerous emails weekly regarding film offerings. Currently, this information is manually inputted into the UiT database ( https://www.uitdatabank.be ), a time-consuming task that occasionally leads to duplicate publications. To address this, a project team consisting of four ACA employees and seven publiq experts aims to enhance the data import process for film offerings into the UiT database. Through the integration of machine learning , this initiative seeks to significantly improve efficiency, ensuring quicker availability of information on www.UiTinVlaanderen.be . 6. SMOCS, Low level mock management systeem The Woningpas , an online tool from the Flemish government, uses many integrations with external parties. They provide a Swagger file with descriptions of their endpoints, while they develop their API in the meantime. ACA is developing a mock application in parallel for this purpose that mocks the API endpoints with specific cases provided by the customer. This involves a lot of development work. Moreover, changes often occur that require the mock application to be reworked. The customer also often adds additional edge cases that need to be tested ad hoc. The project team aims to create a user-friendly tool facilitating the addition of mock data by the entire team . This empowers the customer to independently test and incorporate edge cases. The objective is to enable developers to concentrate more on actual code development. 7. Composable data processing architecture For a government service that collects a lot of data from external parties, according to largely similar processes, this project team wants to establish a reference architecture that can be used for the development of new applications. This means you do not have to start from scratch every time, and fewer development costs and maintenance are required. The focus is on composability and platform thinking within the context of data ingestion. The developers of an application must be able to choose which building blocks they bring together to build their application. Setting up a new application should be relatively simple, with the aim being that the application can limit itself to defining the application-specific business rules. 8. Virtual employees This project team wants to expand the customer's team with virtual employees based on AI and chatbot technology . These extra virtual colleagues can help train new employees and make internal knowledge accessible. The idea is to set up several separate bots, each with their own specialization. The training of the bots will be done gradually. 9. Automated invoicing The customer involved is responsible for incident management of trucks and transport throughout Europe, including the coordination of truck repairs. They handle approximately 50,000 invoices each year from local garages, requiring translation before forwarding to insurers and suppliers. This process is highly labor-intensive and time-consuming. This project team wants to build an AI solution to largely automate the invoicing process. They get started based on 32 sample invoices.

Reading time 3 min

ACA Group Team

Requirements To implement this alternative approach, there are a few requirements that must be met: You must be deploying the container in a Kubernetes cluster. The application must support adding JVM parameters via an environment variable. Starting Point Let's assume that your application is using a StatefulSet that looks something like this: The name of the JAVA_OPTS environment variable may vary depending on the specific application. Packaging the New Relic agent jar To simplify the deployment process, we will create a custom image which contains the New Relic agent jar. To create this image, we will use a Container File, which might look something like this: "Injecting" the New Relic agent into the application container In order to direct the application to use the New Relic agent jar, we will utilize the Kubernetes Init Container and emptyDir concepts. The resulting StatefulSet will look like this: Instead of including the New Relic agent jar in the application image, we use our custom newrelic-agent image as an Init Container. This container copies the newrelic.jar file to an emptyDir volume. Since the Init Container runs before the regular application container and both share the same volume, the newrelic.jar file is accessible when the JVM starts. Apart from the shared volume, we need a few New Relic agent specific environment variables: NEW_RELIC_APP_NAME: to set the application name NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY: to provide the license key NEW_RELIC_LOG_FILE_NAME: to optionally set a non-default log location, in this case STDOUT There are a few additional environment variables available in the New Relic Java agent documentation that can be used. In addition to this basic configuration, you can use the New Relic server-side agent configuration . As you can see in the JAVA_OPTS environment variable, we still need to instruct the JVM to use the New Relic agent jar. It’s worth mentioning that this particular file is located on the shared volume. Also note the "imagePullPolicy" which we have set to "Always" to ensure we always retrieve the latest image version even if it is still using the same tag. Updating the New Relic agent To ensure that the New Relic agent is always up-to-date, you can set up a Continuous Integration pipeline that automatically builds a new container image whenever a new agent version becomes available. Additionally, you can tag the image with major, major.minor, and major.minor.patch, in addition to "latest". This allows you to pin the agent version based on the specific requirements of your application. Depending on the image tag specified in the application's manifest file, updating could be as easy as restarting the application pods. If you prefer to pin the New Relic agent to a specific version, you will need to update the newrelic-agent image tag in the StatefulSet and deploy this change to your Kubernetes cluster. In any case, you no longer need to build a custom image just to add the New Relic agent jar, which should allow for more frequent updates to the agent. Diagram Do you want to discover more about Kubernetes? Click here to discover!