In the era of artificial intelligence (AI), data has become the lifeblood that fuels innovation, drives decision-making, and powers inventive technologies. As Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, aptly put it, “Data is the essential raw material of the AI industrial revolution.” This statement speaks to the critical role that quality data plays in the development and success of AI systems.

Quality data is foundational to AI for several reasons. First and foremost, AI algorithms learn from data. Having quality, reliable data to load into AI models is incredibly important as it is used to train predictive and prescriptive models. AI relies on vast amounts of data to identify patterns, make predictions, and improve over time. The accuracy and effectiveness of these algorithms are directly proportional to the quality of the data they are trained on.

Poor-quality data can lead to biased, unreliable, and even harmful AI outcomes. Data accuracy and data quality metrics are essential in ensuring the overall quality of the data. Additionally, implementing a data quality assessment framework and establishing data quality rules can help maintain high standards.

Amazon’s AI recruiting tool is one example of the consequences of poor data quality. This tool, intended to streamline the hiring process, showed bias against women because it was trained on resumes submitted to the company over a 10-year period. Most of these resumes came from men, a reflection of male dominance across the tech industry. This bias led the AI to favor male candidates, penalizing resumes that included terms like “women’s” or graduates from all-women’s colleges. Despite efforts to make the tool gender-neutral, Amazon ultimately abandoned the project as the system could still devise other discriminatory ways to sort candidates.

To avoid such pitfalls, it’s crucial to ensure data quality by looking for missing data elements, poor data consistency, and old or stale data. Simply put, high-quality data enhances AI models. In a world where AI applications are increasingly integrated into various aspects of daily life, the ability of these systems to perform reliably in diverse real-world scenarios is paramount. High-quality, diverse datasets enable AI models to generalize better and perform well across different contexts and populations, thereby increasing their utility and reliability.

The importance of data quality extends beyond the initial training phase of AI systems. Data quality is also vital for ongoing maintenance and improvement. AI models need continuous learning and adaptation to stay relevant and effective. This involves regularly updating the training data with new and accurate information, which helps the models evolve and remain robust over time. Incomplete data and inconsistent data can significantly impact the timeliness and accuracy of insights.

Organizations looking to leverage AI must prioritize data quality as a strategic asset. This involves implementing rigorous data governance practices, investing in data cleaning and preprocessing, and fostering a culture that values data integrity. Continuous data quality review procedures are essential, and companies like Capitol Tech Solutions (CTS) can help implement robust data quality systems.

Ensure your AI initiatives are built on a solid foundation and capable of delivering reliable, unbiased, and impactful results by partnering with CTS. Contact Capitol Tech Solutions today to discover how we can help you establish and maintain high-quality data standards for your AI projects.

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Everything you need to know about preparing a Scope of Work to get your next software development project underway

At Capitol Tech Solutions, we use a metaphor that compares software development projects to remodeling homes. Before hiring contractors, a person must consult existing architectural plans and bring the house up to code.

Software developers, like contractors, can give a rough cost estimate. Still, they can’t provide an accurate price tag until the architecture review is complete and the work template is defined.

Our Sacramento-based web design and software development teams need to understand the nature of work, your expectations, requirements, and the users who will benefit from the finished product.

In this blog post, Capitol Tech Solutions will provide an in-depth overview of:

• What a Scope of Work, also known as a Statement of Work, entails
• Why you should have one before embarking on your next upgrade
• How to optimize your Scope of Work for the CTS software development team

What is a Scope of Work? Is it a Statement of Work?

A Scope of Work is a vital agreement that details objectives that prevent ambiguity and miscommunication during the design of your software development project. It also keeps you informed and reassured at every stage — from conceptualization to Go Live.

Scope of Work (SOW) or Statement of Work (SOW) outlines project management, tasks, deliverables, phases, milestones, schedule, payment, responsibilities, and more. In this article, SOW refers to Scope of Work.

The SOW should be the first document you create after gathering information about your operational needs, determining where you’d like to improve, and contracting a vendor to implement your ideas.

Why is an SOW Important?

An SOW provides a layer of detail that cost estimates and project plans don’t typically include, describing what will be a deliverable, what won’t be a deliverable, and in what amount of time.

There is a considerable amount of work involved in creating an SOW. Still, it’ll serve as a good exercise in the project management process, allowing you to adjust your estimate, timeline and pin down proposed items from previous internal meetings and discussions.

The SOW documents will be the client (you) and Capitol Tech Solutions’ guidebook, determining what is in scope and out of scope for the project ahead — allowing you to track the performance and progress throughout the project.

The Capitol Tech Solutions’ Approach to Project Management

When software developers at CTS write an SOW for our clients, it entails:

• Overview
• Scope of Work Statement
• User Types
• Functionality
• Workflows & Processes
• Databases Attributes
• UI Frameworks
• Software Requirements
• Future Phased Development

Let’s break down each of these components so you can optimize your SOWs for CTS:

Overview

An overview will explain your organization’s goals for an application, describing what’s already in place and how you want it to improve.

Here is where you identify the date and location of drafting the SOW to avoid any credibility concerns later, should they arise in the process.

Identify related project manager(s), business development manager(s), and give us an idea of your budget, including if there will be a contingency amount and an allocation for support and maintenance of the application after Go Live.

Scope of Work Statement

The scope of work statement defines deliverables and outlines how Capitol Tech Solutions will complete the project for you.

Here is where you identify your ideal timeline for the project. What deliverables are you expecting? What tasks will be completed by CTS, and which will your organization take charge of?

What are the phases of individual and grouped tasks? What are the project’s milestones?

Answering these questions in detail will provide both you and us with a 30,000-foot view of the project.

User Types

When embarking on an application build, you need to outline the intended users internally and externally.

Describe each user in detail and how you envision they will interact with the application — from client to entry-level personnel to management to executives.

This will create personas and user stories that directly inform the workflows and processes that our team will articulate in the UI Framework.

Workflows & Processes

To optimize the project for the CTS team, describe your vision for the functionality of the project at the completion of work. For example, what will the users’ path from Point A to Point B in the application look like?

This is also known as the business requirements section. Are there specific regulations that your team members must adhere to when using the application?

Database Attributes

We need you to identify the data you want to capture within the application. For example, if data is being fed to the application from a source outside the organization, what is that source, and what type of data do you want the application to collect? A typical example of this is customer billing information.

How will that data be displayed in the application, and how will team members, project managers, clients, etc., utilize the data?

User Interface (UI) Framework

The User Interface (UI) Framework is where you identify and conceptualize in detail the virtual steps you would like a user to take. This is the blueprint view that expands upon the personas and workflows you developed in the previous sections.

A real-world example is online shopping. Think about all the webpages you navigate, from selecting an item to purchase to the confirmation page after checkout.

This is where you tell us the function and design of each screen the user will see — then we can work on frameworks until they align with your vision.

Software Requirements

This section should document the needed equipment to complete the project, including the hardware and software list.

Additionally, you can state that Capitol Tech Solutions will use its hardware to build the application before migrating it to your hardware or cloud-hosting service.

Future Phased Development

In this final step of the Scope of Work, outline a detailed plan for support and maintenance.

If there’s an allocation in your budget for continued support and maintenance of your application, keep us on to fix any bugs that might crop up.

This is where you document in the SOW further improvements to the application that you want to incorporate at a later date.

“Software is always soft, so you’re going to have changes to it,” said Shanmugam. “Either your business processes will change, or the deliverables will require some bug fixes.”

Off and Running with an SOW

The Scope of Work is an essential document between a client and a vendor. By developing a detailed SOW, we can work together to build a high-quality application that will improve your business or organizational processes for up to 10 years.

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We are proud to announce that Good Firms Directory lists Capitol Tech Solutions as Top Mobile App Development Companies in 2020. Good Firms is a research organization that seeks to find the best performing companies in a wide variety of tech service industries. Good Firms has more than 60,000 services & software companies listed on their site. It is an honor to be recognized as one of the top performers.

What Winning the Top Mobile App Development Award Means to Us

This isn’t the first time that we have been recognized by Good Firms. Our user experience team was recognized as one of the “top search engine optimization agencies that offer organic services by SEO experts.” We take pride in achieving these awards as it demonstrates our tireless effort to be the best in our industry. “We are thrilled to be recognized as a leader in Mobile App Development,” said Capitol Tech Solutions CEO Bobby Reed. “With the pandemic forcing businesses to be remote, we are able to help them adapt through innovative business solutions on mobile devices. We look forward to helping our customers and partners continue to evolve.”

Proven Custom Software with Superior Customer Support

Our priority at Capitol Tech Solutions is to provide all our clients with the best work possible. The awards that we achieve are just another way for us to see that we are providing our clients with the best custom software. In addition to this recognition, we have also recently received an AVA Digital Gold Award, Davey Silver Award, Mobile Web Award, named by SEO Blog as a top-rated SEO Agency in California for 2019, and recently name by Yelp as the “Number one Sacramento Web Design Agency.” We continually strive to make sure that all our clients are happy with their custom software solutions. Whether you need custom software or help with your user experience strategies, our award-winning team is here to help your business achieve success. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business grow.

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Every year, the Sacramento Business Journal publishes their annual “Book of Lists,” naming top local companies in a variety of individual business professions and fields. Capitol Tech Solutions was recently honored by the Sacramento Business Journal with recognition on two different top company lists: number 20 on the Sacramento list of top 20 software companies (rising from number 24 last year), and number 18 on the region’s list of largest area clean and renewable energy firms.

Published annually, the Sacramento Business Journal’s Book of Lists is the definitive resource guide for business professionals in the region. The Book of Lists provides readers with listings of hundreds of the hottest area companies in their fields, by ranking. Included in the Book of Lists are also the names of key corporate decision makers, along with their titles and complete contact information.

Capitol Tech Solutions Software Development Experience

Since 2004, Capitol Tech Solutions has strived to be a region and industry leader in a variety of digital and technology fields. CTS software development experts build products that are fast, reliable, and scalable for businesses of all sizes.

Our software development team recently completed several major projects for several prominent area government and corporate clients including the California Energy Commission, Big-O Tires, Unico, and PowerSchool.

The firm’s software experts have consistently demonstrated expertise in a wide variety of areas, successfully building customized desktop applications, cloud-based platforms, mobile applications, and database solutions for small, medium, and large business clients.

Capitol Tech Solutions’ work on a major green and environmentally friendly energy client propelled them to the number 18 slot on the Business Journal’s list of top clean and renewable energy companies. The honor is yet another reminder of CTS’ continued commitment to partnering with our clients on green and progressive energy solutions.

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Comparing the API functionality, ease of integration, and developer support for online meeting tools Zoom and GoToMeetingGoToMeeting Integration Capabilities

With the adoption of online meeting tools accelerated due to the pandemic, businesses are inquiring about using those tools for their customers, and integrating them within their existing software platforms. Recently, our software development team completed software projects integrating both Zoom and GoToMeeting. During the process, we learned about the API offerings, working with their support, and determining what can and cannot be done through their development APIs. This is a post focused for developers on the API integrations, not the features of each tool. If you are looking for a costs and features comparison, check out G2 or Capterra.

The goal of this article is to point out the pros and cons of each platform, and to help developers understand the differences between the two platforms from an integration standpoint.

Development Tools and Requirements:

Both of these projects were developed with Microsoft.NET, and utilized the C# programming language. They are both web based applications, and utilize the latest .NET framework. The end goal was also similar. Both applications required users to schedule, configure, and manage virtual meetings directly through the application without having to login to the virtual meeting platform. For each of the tools, we have broken down the integrations into 5 aspects: API Tools, Ease of Use, Features, Support, and SSO.

GoToMeeting Integration Capabilities

We started integrating an application with GoToMeeting because it was the preferred virtual meeting application for our client. They have been using it for years, but saw a need to make it even easier for their clients by integrating it into their customer portal.

API tools

They have an API per product (Meetings, Webinar, Training, etc.). We integrated with the Meetings API. They supported trying out API calls via the documentation. They have a .NET SDK, and we used that to integrate with their API. The value of using an SDK rather than calling the API directly is having to spend less time writing code, since the code is written for you in the SDK. In order to use the API, you have to create an app in their developer center.

Ease of Use

Integrating with the .NET SDK was difficult. There were few examples and little documentation on the SDK itself. The API was better documented. The biggest challenge was if an error occurred using the SDK, it did not describe what the error was. The largest chunk of time spent integrating with GoToMeeting was troubleshooting what was wrong with our calls in the SDK.

Features

Meetings has a limited range of features. Our business requirements were fairly simple though. We wanted the ability to schedule meetings in the future, and they supported that option. Other features they have are scheduling instant meetings, changing how people can connect to the meeting, like phone or video chat, adding a password, and scheduling recurring meetings. At least via the API there was not much more you could customize for the meeting.

Support

They have documentation for their API endpoints. The documentation was useful and helped with integrating with the SDK. From the styling, my guess is they used Swagger to autogenerate the API documentation. It was descriptive enough to use, but it contained very little insight on how the fields are validated.

SSO

They support SSO, but we did not use it. Using it would require the user to have to log into GoToMeeting to make API calls. Our business requirements required the user not having to log in to GoToMeeting, so we used a different approach. The other option is direct login, which is how we did it. The difference here is we store the account username and password securely with the configuration and log into the API for the user, so they do not have to.

Zoom Integration Capabilities

We started integrating with Zoom for a client after they researched 3 platforms, and determined Zoom best fit their needs. API integration was a must for this client.

API tools

Zoom has a very extensive API supporting many of their different features, but for our business requirements we integrated with the Meetings and Users API. Like GoToMeeting, in order to access the API, you had to create an app in their marketplace. Their API supported trying out API calls, which was helpful. One very interesting tool they have is the ability to automatically generate code in whatever language you are working with. Unfortunately, this tool was not very useful for C# since it did not autogenerate the request body and response body models as classes. They did not have a .NET SDK.

Ease of Use

Since they did not have a .NET SDK, we had to write the code ourselves to connect to the API. Writing the model classes was a little time consuming since their models are fairly in-depth, but there was significantly less troubleshooting and debugging compared to integrating with the GoToMeeting SDK.

Features

Zoom has a wide range of features, far too many to cover in this article. Our business requirements for integrating with Zoom were a little different. We wanted to automatically register certain users, so they have a unique URL to attend the meeting, in addition to other minor features like muting participants as they join. Zoom supported these capabilities and much more. In fact, there are so many options it can be a little bit overwhelming.

Support

They have documentation for their API endpoints. Their API documentation was very descriptive, especially regarding the valid values of the body parameters.

SSO

They support SSO, but we did not use it. Instead, they allow creating a JWT token with a Client ID and Client Secret generated from the app in the marketplace. This does not require storing sensitive data like usernames and passwords.

Pros and Cons of GoToMeeting and Zoom Developer Integrations

Overall, both platforms have an API, and allowed for integrations with 3rd party software. Both of the platforms met our client’s requirements from an integration standpoint, although our client’s requirements were not terribly complex.

Zoom Pros

• Very customizable.
• Easy authentication.
• Great API documentation.

While each platform was able to meet our needs, we found the following items to be lacking

Zoom Cons

• No .NET SDK or NuGet package.
• Requires more dev work to integrate with.

Conclusion of Zoom and GoToMeeting from a developer perspective

The integration with each platform met our client’s requirements. With most software projects, now that we have completed the first phase of our integration, our clients are asking for more features and capabilities. We will continue to develop features for integrating both with Zoom and GoToMeeting, and update this document accordingly.

Capitol Tech Solutions is a digital agency that builds software solutions that helps businesses optimize their operations using the Microsoft.NET platform. Our team of developers is standing by for your project, so contact us today to get your project started.

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Along with providing on demand scalability Azure also provides industry leading security and privacy to safeguard all your data. Overall Azure provides critical IaaS and PaaS services to optimize the entire workflow of enterprise applications.

What Does it Mean to be Certified in Microsoft Azure Fundamentals?

Skills Measured During the Certification Exam:

• Understand cloud concepts (15-20%)
• Understand core Azure services (30-35%)
• Understand security, privacy, compliance, and trust (25-30%)
• Understand Azure pricing and support (20-25%)

Building on Our Existing Azure Knowledge Leads to Better Cloud Solutions

Although we already utilize Azure services, investing in certifications enhances our knowledge and improves our use of cloud capabilities. This is particularly important as more and more clients turn to cloud services to build and scale their business.

According to Wired, cloud services are estimated to grow to $191 billion by the end of 2020. Our cloud architects and software developers have put greater emphasis on knowledge gathering to provide leading edge solutions using cloud based efficiencies.

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Qualified IT CMAS Contractors

In order to become a CMAS contractor you have to demonstrate a level of experience and knowledge within the provided CMAS application format. Successfully securing our IT CMAS contract validates the knowledge and experience our software, and IT team have to work on state projects within the following areas:

• IT Consult – Database Design
• IT Consult – Software Development
• IT Consult – System Analysis
• IT Consult – Website Design
• IT Consult – Website Maintenance
• IT Consult – Project Planning
• IT Consult – Mobile App Design
• IT Consult – Mobile App Maintenance
• IT Consult – Programming
• IT Consult – Project Management

Qualified Contractors for Non-IT CMAS Projects

Along with our IT CMAS contracts we also secured our CMAS for Non-It related services. Becoming a certified CMAS contractor for Non-IT services was a pivotal step to leverage the experience of not just our software and IT team but also our user experience team. As Non-IT CMAS contractors the CTS team can obtain state contracts in the following areas:

• Business Consult – Program Design
• Business Consult – Program Develop
• Business Consult – Program Implement
• Business Consult – Project Management
• Marketing Consult
• Writing Services
• Graphic Design Services
• Multimedia Consulting
• Social Media Publicity Services
• Business Consult – Strategic Planning
• Video Tape/Film Production

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Sacramento region clean tech leader spotlights CTS client Capitol Energy Systems

Capitol Tech Solutions has long been dedicated to creating innovative strategic software solutions for a variety of clients across many industries. Our energy management client Capitol Energy Systems was recently featured by CleanStart, a leader in the Sacramento region clean technology sector. Capitol Tech Solutions’ software team has been working with the team at Capitol Energy Systems to develop cutting-edge smart energy management systems for clients across the country. Capitol Energy Systems’ smart technology provides energy management solutions to schools throughout California, generating cost savings in the range of 20-40% for those that used the software that Capitol Tech Solutions developed.

Our software team is helping position Capitol Energy Systems for its next phase by building on its track record and expanding the applications of some new software, new sensors and new communicating smart thermostats to any building under 25,000 square feet.

Capitol Tech Solutions has also done work for the California Energy Commission producing tracking systems for renewable energy projects qualifying under the Renewable Portfolio Standards rules.

CleanStart has been working to build the clean tech hub in the Sacramento region. We have been supporting local growth through education, networking, and promotion. Their work has helped 85 local companies in the core clean tech sector, which generate $3.1 billion in revenue and 5,065 jobs.

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I’m Chuck Merkle, a Senior FileMaker Pro developer since 1998. This year I was fortunate enough to attend the FileMaker Pro Annual Conference, and below is my take on the excellent event.

The 24^th Annual FileMaker Developer’s Conference was held in Orlando this past week, and by my estimate there were well over 2000 people in attendance. This was my first FMDevCon in over 5 years, so I made sure to attend as many sessions as possible. As with any tech conference, this was an experience similar to drinking from a firehose. So much great information, so little time to take it all in. Fortunately, there were a lot of talented folks around me to discuss the new technologies and tools announced this week.

The conference keynote was delivered by Brad Frietag, Filemaker’s newly appointed CEO. He started the week with a bang by announcing the company’s name change from FileMaker to Claris. This received applause and chuckles from the attendees – since Claris was the original name of the company that created FileMaker in the late ’80s, back when many of us first started developing with FileMaker. It was interesting that up until the name change announcement the old FileMaker logo was nowhere to be seen throughout the conference, not even on our ID badges. While the keynote ran, the halls and signage in the conference center transformed, revealing the new Claris logo for the attendees to see. The announcement came as a complete surprise.

The actual product ‘FileMaker Pro’ will continue to keep its name and will continue to be a primary focus of the new Claris. However, the company also plans on growing their business with initiatives focused on Cloud-first, Mobile & Web, Integrations, and Emerging Technologies like AI and Augmented Reality.

The next big announcement at the conference was the rollout of the company’s newest offering — Claris Connect (formerly Stamplay, acquired just a month ago), which is an API integration service used for automating workflows across cloud-based services. Claris Connect should be available this Fall or early next year. They also showed FileMaker exploratory technology demos of authoring in a browser, Siri integration, AI using coreML, and NFC reading with IOS devices.

There were a lot of great vendors in the marketplace area as well as “lightning sessions” where the vendors demo’d their products. I spent some time looking at the new LiveCode for FileMaker compiler for Android, for potential use in one of our current projects. I also met and thanked Matt Petrowsky – a FileMaker Magazine author and trainer, as I’ve spent much time on his site over the past 6 months.

With Brad Frietag now at the helm, more than 50,000 customers, over 1 million end-users, and 80+ profitable quarters under its belt, the FileMaker business appears to be on track to dramatically increase its business over the next three years. Their philosophy of empowering problem-solvers with approachable “low-code” tools to help build smart solutions for their businesses is a winning one. Moreover, as Capitol Tech Solutions grows into the FileMaker market, I look forward to using my experience in API’s, SQL, and Integrations to build on our software development business.

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What is the California Energy Commission?

How did we land our first business with the State of California?

We got selected to work with the California Energy Commission through our IT CMAS contract.

In order to do business with the State of California, CMAS Services contracts must be in place. CMAS, which stands for California Multiple Award Schedule, is a program managed by the Department of General Services that provides preset prices for our services that have been assessed to be fair, reasonable, and competitive.

By obtaining our CMAS contracts, we have another tool in our toolbox to provide great solutions to state agencies who are looking for our team’s expertise’s in web development, software development, IoT solutions, and data visualizations.

Our specific service codes we have been awarded all fall under the IT Consult category. They are: Database Design, Programming, Project Management, Project Planning, Software Development, System Analysis, System Design, System Development, Website Design, and Website Maintenance. Within those services, we have been approved for the following job titles: Application Architect I, II, III, Application Developer I, II, III, Computer Programmer, Computer Systems Analyst I, Creative Media Specialist, Director I, Instructional Designer I, Instructional Technologist I, II, III, Project Manager I, II, III, and Web Designer I, II, III.

Capitol Tech Solutions is Sacramento Proud!

Being a Sacramento based company, we are proud to be recognized as one of the largest software development companies in the city. One of our many goals has always been to do business with the state. As a provider of digital services to government agencies, we understand the strict requirements and attention to detail necessary for each project and develop comprehensive solutions that improve efficiencies.

We will be utilizing our extensive expertise in software and assessment to assist the California Energy Commission in identifying opportunities for improvements throughout their user experience, for both internal and external users. We are looking forward to more opportunities to work with the State of California in the near future!

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