Our Services
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Business Process Analysis: To fully understand the critical elements of what makes a business function or to address an organization’s business objective, every process, function and/or initiative must integrate five elements—employees, structure, information, technology and customers. Such integration in successful companies doesn’t just happen. It takes considerable, thorough and careful analysis and design. We have been engaged by many of our clients to undertake Business Process Analysis on both non computer and computer related engagements to improve the overall business environment. We help our clients address in house concerns on what can be done to evaluate and improve business elements that will result in new or additional profits for the company. We do this with a thorough analysis, definition and documentation of the elements and processes in detail and with precision. But, we listen to our clients. We DELIVER what they want. ...And if our analysis reveals other needs, we recommend solutions and alternatives that our clients may choose to implement/or have us implement. If desired, we will subject the detailed information to word-by-word review, revision and agreement by process or project owners. This process development approach reveals "disconnects" between organizations and key business objectives. It also builds a solid foundation for enhancement, improvement and eases change. The resulting document becomes a living contract and a framework for subsequent action by company management. As change or improvement is undertaken it is critical to monitor and measure the effect of the change. If desired, we will take Performance measurements which not only gauge success but guide improvements; they also keep projects in line with business objectives and critical success factors. Project Planning and Initiation: When needed/if not done, Planning for a project is as important as accomplishing the tasks within the project to a successful conclusion. There is a wide range of work that must be encompassed in every project. Examples include the implementation of new packaged or custom software, or a combination of both, or cover specific effort to update or maintain current systems. Or it might not even address the systems area but could include marketing studies, product evaluation, resource funding or upgrading the policies and procedures which help to make your company more effective. Working closely with our clients, we help to address the issues which are "key" to the overall success of a project. Formalizing the approach brings control to bear early on rather than a continuing organized "chaos." It is important that management understands the implementation risks, whether financial or time and staffing constraints before moving ahead. We have staff who have been successful in this area of effort in hundreds of situations. We bring to our clients the needed strengths to get the project off in the right direction.
Systems Analysis and Requirements Definition: Plunging ahead into new, sometimes unrelated, areas without knowing from what point you are beginning or without having some idea as to where you want to end up usually results in failure of any project.We provide the functional and technical expertise to assist our clients in identifying and documenting the functional, technical or business requirements to be addressed by the new or modified system. It is important not to focus entirely on the old but it must be known what is in place. By addressing the long term goals and objectives, it allows our team to focus on the "delta," which are the new elements that are to be addressed in the project from what is in place today and to what will be in place at the ends of the project. During this effort, the attention and solutions are addressed to give definition to the remaining tasks and phases of the projects. Part of this effort is to accomplish the preliminary design of the solutions.To many, this phase seems "a waste" but we look at it as a time to get ready to "Run." Knowing where and how you want to accomplish the project enables the staff to direct their energies to accomplishing tasks at hand, not continuously question solutions and alternatives as the project moves forward.
Software/Product Evaluation and Recommendation: Knowing the effort to be accomplished within the project enables our team, working with our clients, to assist in the evaluation of the availability and viability of software and/or products which might effectively solution the needed goals and objectives of the project and thereby expediting the project duration and lowering costs. Because of the myriad of software and products in the market place it is more than likely that a "prepackaged" solution might effectively address the needs of most projects. Understanding each of these solutions is critical to this evaluation and recommendation phase. More important, of course, is knowing what is really needed, which was accomplished earlier in the life cycle of the project. Our team has extensive knowledge and experience working with the many software and hardware solutions that can be addressed. Not only has our staff made hundreds of software packages and product evaluations and recommendations, they have gone on to implement projects using these software packages, hardware and products. Our staff is constantly being updated through training on these products so as to bring "STRENGTH TO NEED" for out clients.
At this point in the project life cycle it is necessary to define exactly what the new system or project is to accomplish. We help our clients focus on this important effort. Keeping our clients on the WHAT is important because if you cannot define the WHAT properly, the HOW, WHEN and WHERE, which should be addressed later, is usually fraught with false starts and delays. In this phase we help our clients define the specifications of the "WHAT." We address goals, objectives and issues in all areas of the company in order to create a thorough, cohesive, integrated and controlled "WHAT" of the project.
Product Acquisition and Installation: Helping our clients to deal with the many issues they face in the acquiring and installing of new products can be important to the success of the project. The products can be of a wide variety of elements. Failure to effectively handle the new products can have a significant detrimental effect on the success of the project. It is NOT just loading a real of tape or moving to a new box. Timing is a major factor that must be addressed. Failure to have the correct product in the proper place and at the correct time will have a major impact not only on the project but on the moral and support of the management and staff of the company. We work with our clients to effect a "total" solution to the product acquisition needs. Our staff has worked with many of the product vendors on previous engagements and these ‘working relationships’ help to transcend and eliminate the variety of difficulties that can exist in solutioning the problems that could occur.
In this phase of a project life cycle we assist our clients in developing and defining the ‘HOW’ part of the project. Having previously defined the ‘WHAT’ it is now imperative that the ‘HOW’ be adequately defined to take effective and efficient use of the power of the goals and objectives of the project. We help many clients develop standards to provide common direction to this effort. This phase is one in which our clients usually require the "STRENGTH TO NEED" of our firm. We bring talented staff to address areas the clients staff may be lacking or non-existent.
With this phase of the system life cycle we help our clients develop procedures and documentation to enable the client staff to use the new system in the way it was intended to be used. In addition we help our clients development training strategies so as to properly train the users of the new system. Training in the use of the new system/environment is critical to success. Many times the system is perceived to be of ‘no value’ by the users due to a lack of improper training. Adequate communication about the new system is a must for a successful project. Many times user staff look at the "New" to be too big or of little interest to them. Client staff looks at a new system as "What can it do for me" rather than "What will it do for the company." Addressing both of these concerns is of great importance to the success of the project. In addressing the staff concerns we utilize the ‘Delta’ information that was identified previously. By training each user on just what has changed for them reduces the concerns and gives comfort. Most users do not like change and an explanation as to just what is being changed helps them buy into the new system. Our training team has extensive experience in the training process and it is this talent that contributes significantly to our success in helping clients. In this phase we help develop user procedures, redefining job descriptions, reorganizing units, identification of additional staffing needs, and evaluation of current staffing needs. In addition we help to define user training requirements and training strategies. For some clients we are asked to prepare and deliver training materials and have on many occasions taken complete responsibility for the procedure development and the training program, including scheduling and delivery of training classes. The life cycle of system testing addresses many areas of testing such as unit testing, system testing, integration testing and acceptance testing. The integration testing activity is the most important. During this phase the activities are all brought together to reflect a total and viable solution for the company. This testing phase addresses elements in a concentrated, vigorous and controlled manner. It addresses the functional and technical aspects of the system, the volume and performance aspects as well as conversion elements that are part of the new system. Back-up and recovery and stressed testing is accomplished during this phase. In addition security and the operating issues are tested. We help our clients address the issues surrounding the testing phase including the reports which are part of the normal system environment. Our strategy during the testing phase is to "make the system fail." By doing this we address all the areas, functions and opportunities for failure of the system. We eliminate surprises!!! The acceptance test plan requires significant user involvement over a significant period of time. Controls must be development and put into place. We help our clients during this critical period. The system must be declared ‘Ready for Beneficial Use’ after this phase. If a parallel test is chosen to be made part of the plan we help our clients plan for the additional effort needed to undertake the effort. A successful project can be lost if the plan to ‘roll out’ the system to the users is not thorough and effectively accomplished. All of the efforts must be controlled to affect the best possible outcome. We assist our clients in planning, converting, controlling and/or creating the information necessary to ‘make it happen.’ We assist them in turning over the responsibility and accountability of the new system, and its elements, to the company’s users and management. We help them develop roll out/transition plans and assure that all the participants know the ‘rules’ in the plan. Change, users frequently want the new system changed almost immediately. They want the new system to function just like the old system. We stress to our clients to withhold any agreement of or processing of change for at least four (4) months. During this period we suggest that the staff use the system as planned enabling them to become more comfortable with the new system and less comfortable with the ‘old’. Many times, the earlier requests for change are withdrawn or forgotten. Also during these four months we recommend and help our clients to review the new system operation and do a quality control check of the system operation. In many instances we are asked by project management to participate in a final ‘Report to Management’.
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Project Scope & Objectives