#import "../template.typ": *

= Chapter 2: Background Study and Literature Review
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== 2.1. Introduction to Organization 
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F1Soft International is a leading financial technology company based in Nepal. Established in 2004, the company specializes in providing innovative digital financial solutions to a diverse range of clients, including banks, financial institutions, and enterprises in Nepal. F1Soft’s mission is to revolutionize the financial services industry by leveraging cutting-edge technology to enhance financial inclusion and provide seamless digital experiences to its users. The company’s portfolio includes a wide array of products and services such as mobile banking, payment gateways, digital wallets, and enterprise solutions, all designed to meet the evolving needs of the modern financial ecosystem. F1Soft is recognized for introducing mobile banking and mobile financial services in the country.

The Mobile Banking and Internet Banking platforms developed by F1Soft are currently used by over 90% of the banks in Nepal, serving in excess of 19 million people. The systems contribute to nearly 80% of the total digital payments in Nepal. The company’s efforts in fintech innovation have been duly recognized by various national and international bodies, including the 2014 International Business Awards (Bronze), the 2013 FNCCI Service Excellence Award, and the 2012 Red Herring Top 100 Asia Award. In 2017, F1Soft was recognized as Nepal’s Highest Tax Payer (IT Sector) by the Government of Nepal. F1Soft is also working with the Government of Nepal and a few other organizations to identify and develop digital financial solutions that benefit and improve the lives of the unbanked and underbanked across the country.



F1Soft is the market leader in the fintech industry due to its unwavering dedication to perfection, constant forward thinking and focus on the client. Financial inclusion for millions is being championed by F1Soft with its strong infrastructure and smart team that yearns to see this achieved through providing safe trustworthy easy to use financial solutions.
/* 
F1Soft has established itself as a pioneer in the fintech industry through its commitment to excellence, continuous innovation, and a customer-centric approach. With a robust infrastructure and a talented team, F1Soft aims to drive financial inclusion and empower millions of users by providing secure, reliable, and user-friendly financial solutions.



F1Soft International leading financial technology company Nepal. Established 2004, it focuses on providing advanced digital financial solutions to various customers such as banks, financial institutions, and businesses within the country. F1Soft aims at changing the banking sector by using modern technology to promote financial inclusion and offer seamless online services for its clients. Its products range from mobile banking systems, payment gateways, digital wallets and enterprise solutions all designed around the needs of today’s financial world. Besides, this firm is credited with introducing mobile banking as well as mobile financial services in Nepal.

The company’s mobile banking and internet banking platforms which were developed are used by more than 90% of banks currently operational in Nepal thus serving >19M people. These systems account for nearly 80% total digital payments recorded so far in this landlocked nation. Moreover, F1Soft has won different accolades in recognition of its contribution towards fintech innovation both locally and internationally including but not limited to: Bronze Stevie Award Winner 2014 International Business Awards; 2013 FNCCI Service Excellence Award Winner; 3rd – Red Herring Top 100 Asia Award Winner 2012 among others. Additionally, in 2017 it was awarded ‘Nepal Highest Tax Payer IT Sector’ by Government of Nepal Revenue Department. Furthermore, there is an ongoing collaboration between F1Soft International Pvt Ltd and Government of Nepal/other agencies aimed at identifying and developing digital financial solutions that will benefit unbanked or underbanked populations across different regions of Nepal.


F1Soft is the market leader in the fintech industry due to its unwavering dedication to perfection, constant forward thinking and focus on the client. Financial inclusion for millions is being championed by F1Soft with its strong infrastructure and smart team that yearns to see this achieved through providing safe trustworthy easy to use financial solutions.

*/
*#tbl(
  [],
  "2.1",
  [Company Details],
)*
#table(
    columns: (0.3fr, 0.4fr ),
    inset: (x:5pt, y: 10pt),
    align: horizon,
    [Official name], [F1Soft ],
    [Type of business], [Fintech],
    [Location], [Pulchowk, lalitpur],
    [Year of establishment], [2004],
    [Key service areas], [Digital Payment Solutions, Banking Solutions],
    [Staff size], [600],
    [Location of clients], [Nepal],
    [Expertise in],[Financial Software Development, Digital Payment Systems, Data Analytics],
    [Noteworthy mentions],[Innovation in Digital Payments,Core Banking Solutions],
)



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== 2.2. Organizational Hierarchy 
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F1Soft International prioritizes innovation through its structure. The Board sets direction, and Executive Management implements it. Specialized departments handle tasks: Product Development builds software, Sales & Marketing drives growth, Customer Support keeps users happy, DevOps streamlines processes, and Finance & Admin manages the company's well-being. This structure fosters collaboration towards F1Soft's goals.


// #image("report_images/F1Soft Hierarchy.png")
*#img(
  image("report_images/F1Soft Hierarchy.png"),
    "2.1",
    "Organizational Hierarchy"
)*


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== 2.3. Working Domains of Organization 
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F1Soft International Pvt. Ltd is among the top technology firms located in Nepal that mainly focuses on financial technology solutions (fintech). Since its establishment in 2004, F1Soft has revolutionized digital financial services thus changing Nepalese and regional financial sector landscape. The company operates principally in: 

 
#set enum(numbering: "i)")
+ *Digital Payment Solutions* - F1Soft is popularly known for its inclusive digital payment systems which consist of mobile wallets and payment gateways. Notable products under this category are eSewa (Nepal’s first & leading digital wallet) and Fonepay (a prominent payment gateway that facilitates secure online transactions). 

 

+ *Core Banking Solutions* – It offers strong core banking systems that are meant to improve the operational efficiency of banks. These solutions help in various banking operations like account management, transaction processing among others. 

 

+ *Mobile Banking* – Advanced mobile banking applications provided by F1Soft allow users to do multiple banking activities using their smartphones. These applications have features such as fund transfer, balance inquiry, bill payment etc., thus making it more convenient for the user. 

 

+ *Internet Banking* – Secure internet banking platforms provided by the company ensures that customers have a user-friendly online banking experience. This allows them to manage their finance transfer money pay bills from home comforts or while at work through different services available on these platforms. 

 

+ *Send or transfer money*: F1Soft also has experience with money transfer systems. They make it easy to send funds between countries by streamlining the process for their clients who want to do so quickly and securely while saving on costs too! 

 

+ *For businesses*: F1Soft offers many other types of technology products besides just those related to finance such as app development tools etc., through its Enterprise Solutions arm catering for all different industries’ needs ranging from software engineering through systems integration right up until consultancy service provision around Information Technology. 

 

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== 2.4.  Description of Intern Department
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During my internship at F1Soft International Pvt. Ltd., I was placed in the dynamic DevOps department, which plays a crucial role in the company’s IT infrastructure and operations. The DevOps team is responsible for ensuring seamless integration and deployment processes, enabling continuous delivery and integration (CI/CD) of applications. This involves managing infrastructure automation, monitoring system performance, and enhancing deployment efficiency through streamlined processes and tools. Each team within the department is led by a dedicated team lead who oversees operations and delegates responsibilities to team members. Under the guidance of System Support and Deployment Department, the department fosters a collaborative and energetic environment that enables its teams to deliver exceptional results.

As a DevOps intern, I had the opportunity to work under the guidance of my mentors, <NAME> and <NAME> who provided invaluable assistance throughout my tenure. My responsibilities included assisting in the setup and maintenance of CI/CD pipelines, working with tools like Docker, Kubernetes, and Ansible for infrastructure automation, and implementing monitoring tools to track system performance. Additionally, I wrote scripts to automate routine tasks, improving overall efficiency in deployment and maintenance processes. This hands-on experience in DevOps practices, coupled with the support and mentorship from my team, significantly enhanced my technical skills and prepared me for a future career in the DevOps field. The collaborative and energetic environment at F1Soft allowed me to develop professionally and contribute effectively to the team's objectives.

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== 2.5.  Literature Review
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The adoption of DevOps practices has significantly transformed the software development and IT operations landscape, promoting a culture of collaboration, continuous integration, and automation. DevOps culture thrives on the breaking down of walls between development and operations teams thus enabling faster and more reliable software releases @book:DevOpsPerspective. This kind of transformation is supported by a shift towards this culture which is fostered by processes and tools of automation where quality can be delivered at speed without sacrificing stability of operations or efficiency in running such systems within an organization.

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) is one such central pillar among other things that make up DevOps @humble2010continuous. CI/CD pipelines automate integration testing deployment, speeding up production cycles through reduction of manual labour errors and general slowness associated with them thus ultimately boosting overall productivity levels within development teams. Also, it sets a ground for receiving quick responses from clients during different stages (feedback loops) because developers can detect any problem at an early stage before proceeding further.

Additionally, you will note that if we put in place DevOps practices then system monitoring and incident management become easier than ever before. There are continuous monitoring tools such as Prometheus, Grafana or ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) among others which offer visibility into the performance and health status of a system real time @paper:DevopsEbert/*https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/MS.2016.68*/. Through them organizations can easily find anomalies proactively as well as respond quickly when incidents occur so as to improve reliability while reducing downtime for those depending on these systems most times in businesses world wide. More still, an effective monitoring combined with logging forms strong pillars towards achieving success through ensuring high availability levels & performances are maintained always within any given environment setting under consideration taking cognizance that downtime may translate into huge losses especially financially or even worse loss of lives due failure deliver mission critical services.

/*
Continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD) is one of the main components of DevOps. As highlighted by @humble2010continuous, CI/CD pipelines automate integrating code changes, running tests, and deploying applications into production environments. Less manual intervention means less errors will be made which can be corrected during the delivery cycle that is sped up thus improving overall productivity among development teams. Additionally, these practices enable quick feedback loops where developers may notice problems at an early stage in their development before they become widespread.



According to @morisIAC's explanation, Infrastructure-as-Code (IAC) represents another fundamental part of DevOps. He defines this as managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable configuration files rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. By doing so one ensures setup for infrastructure is uniform each time its done which cannot happen if done manually therefore there will be no configuration drift since everything has been put under version control too so as well as making sure systems are reliable. Moreover, such tools like Ansible; Terraform; Chef etc., allow complex deployments automation leading to increased operational efficiency.



In conclusion, numerous scholars along with industry professionals underscore how much DevOps has changed both software development and information technology operations (IT Ops). @book:DevOpsPerspective observed that this is accomplished by creating an atmosphere where different groups collaborate on projects; automating many tasks within project management so they require less manual intervention thus saving time as well as effort but still delivering greater results; integrating security measures throughout all stages of the development lifecycle thereby enabling early detection and mitigation of potential vulnerabilities hence reducing chances for any breach occurring at later stages too.
*/


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