I find it interesting to learn of the systems that others use, so I’d like to share the ones we use. We have a tendency to make the most of and build upon our investment in Office 365, host apps on and backup to either Azure or AWS, or to use open source.
Corporate
- Productivity – Office 365. We mainly assign E3 licences, and the occasional E1 licence for sub-contractors.
- Ticket, asset and opportunity management – Dynamics 365 (expanding into works management soon)
- Finance – Quickbooks Online
- Timesheets – Microsoft Project Web App and PowerBI (for reporting and generating printed timesheet info)
- Websites – WordPress, hosted by Synergy Wholesale (where local hosting/performance is important) or Dreamhost (where neither is).
- Progress tracking and collaboration (for testing and complex delivery projects) – Azure DevOps
- Password management – 1password (although considering an open source option)
- Progress tracking – MS Planner
- Virtual meetings – MS Teams
- Backup – Azure (Azure Backup Center for workloads on-prem and in the cloud), Office 365 (Skykick)
- Architecture diagrams – Visio
- Phone system, and alternate virtual meeting platform – 3cx with SIP trucks provisioned through NetSIP/OTW
- Remote monitoring – Zabbix
- Remote management – Teamviewer
Specialty
- Test planning, preparation and execution – Azure DevOps
- Load/performance testing – Apache JMeter (scripting) and Blazemeter (execution)
- Usability testing – Participate.io
- SCORM development – Adobe Captivate
- LMS – Moodle
- GIS – QGIS
- Client / Community / Customer Management Systems – Dynamics 365 / Powerapps / Flow
- Data transformation – Excel Power Queries (simple), Talend Open Studio (complex)
- Video production – OBS Studio or Adobe Premiere Pro
- Photo editing – Adobe Photoshop
- Records Management – Content Manager (maximising PROV compliance) or SharePoint
Hardware
- Secure tokens – Protectimus
- Laptop / desktop – Surface Pro
- WiFi APs, switches and firewalls – Ubiquiti (inc Unifi gear and Unifi Controller)
