Management Consulting Services

Micromation also provides management consulting engagement staff and services to help companies develop IT strategies and tactics. These services are quoted on a project basis.

See the examples of Management Consulting staff and services below:

Business Consultants

Minimum General Experience

Twenty (20) years of progressive consulting experience, providing information technology (IT) organizational, strategic and technology recommendations and support to large scale, enterprise-wide operations and organizations.

Experience includes working with executive management in large government and commercial organizations to assess, diagnose, recommend and implement large scale organizational, strategic and technological programs and projects. Experience includes company-wide strategy implementation; designing, leading, and organizing organizational workshops and seminars; performing benchmark studies; creating unique procedures and methods to support implementation of approved strategy or business change or improvement; conducting training sessions; providing mediation and facilitation services and executive coaching; publishing articles regarding strategy development.

Functional Responsibility

Provide consulting to chief information officers, vice presidents, directors and senior managers on implementation of IT wide strategy development, implementation and process improvement initiatives. Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

	Possesses extensive experience in group collaboration and one-on-one executive coaching to organization leaders.
	Design, organize, lead and conduct executive level workshops, seminars, training sessions and facilitation.
	Tailor strategy development, implementation and quality improvement courses and workshops for an IT organization and its specific needs.
	Design, organize, lead and conduct benchmarking and surveys for an organization.
	Creates original and innovative models and techniques to facilitate organizational assessment, strategy development, implementation and process improvement efforts requiring a mastery of technical and financial expertise in scientific/technical/accounting disciplines or area.
	Manage a team of senior consultants and analysts supporting an IT organization’s assessment, strategy development, implementation, organization change, process improvement and training efforts.
	Give lectures, speeches or write original articles or documents relating to strategy development, implementation and process improvement or technical enhancements to process improvement and customer service.

Minimum Education

Master’s Degree in Business or Public Administration, or a Bachelor’s Degree; or equivalent combination of education and/or experience.

Enterprise Architects

Minimum General Experience

Over twenty (20) years of experience working with customers in the Financial, Utilities and Government sectors developing Enterprise Information Technology Architectures (EITA).  The EITA is the blueprint for creating enterprise-wide information systems, providing a common shared context for making investment decisions.  It provides a way to describe new information systems or strategies for modernizing existing ones. You have a clear path for developing enterprise information systems and a starting point for detailed design and construction.

Experience includes developing 5-year IT Strategies to guide executive decisions on technology investments for large Financial Institutions; developing enterprise-wide information technology architectures starting from a base of unwieldy legacy systems with multiple hardware, software, design strategies, and implementation platforms; providing an architecture where the components seamlessly interact and evolve according to long-range strategic business objectives for a large organization; developing Technology Standards, Technical Reference Models and IT Principles to assist with the design decisions; developing an EITA framework drawing upon conceptual models such as the Zachman Framework and The Open Group Architectural Framework (TOGAF). 

Functional Responsibility

Provide consulting to chief information officers, vice presidents, directors and senior managers on the development of IT Strategies and Enterprise Architectures. Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

	Developing an IT Strategy Assessing existing applications and technologies Interviewing executives and managers to determine business objectives and prioritize requirements Developing strategic direction and recommended implementation scenario Documenting and presenting IT Strategy to executive management
	Documenting existing systems and architectures
	Developing IT Principles, Technology Standards, Technical Reference Models to support Enterprise Information Technology Architecture
	Developing EITA following Industry-leading technologies: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) with Web Services support Event-driven Architecture with rules-based interfaces to Operational Data Stores (ODS) and Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) Legacy (CICS, IMS) Integration via Reliable Messaging (JMS) Highly available J2EE infrastructure with Rich Client (.NET Forms/Java Swing) or Casual Browser Clients (Portals, JavaScript, JSF)
	Developing phased implementation strategies to ensure early deliverables and minimal re-development

Minimum Education

Master’s Degree in Science or a Bachelor’s Degree; or equivalent combination of education and/or experience.

Program/Project Managers  

Minimum General Experience

Ten (10) years experience managing a staff of consultants and support staff to implement a strategic program or lead and direct a project team; allocate work among the staff and provide guidance to team members; prepare project schedules and perform routine employee relation activities.

Functional Responsibility

Responsible for the successful implementation and delivery of strategic programs. Including project plans, level of effort estimates, scheduling, monitoring and progress tracking of project. Allocates work, provides advice, guidance and training to subordinates, and recommends personnel staffing. Responsible for program and risk management including strategy, project controls, project plan reviews, risk analysis and mitigation, staffing, and organizational development.

Minimum Education

Master’s Degree, or a Bachelors Degree and ten years of relevant experience; or equivalent combination of experience.

Information Security Audit ISO17799/BS7799

Does your organization need help in carrying out an Information Security audit?

Micromation is one of only a handful of organizations in North America that has consultants certified by the British Standards Institute to carry out audits of information security systems, and how they are managed, in accordance with the ISO 17799 information security standard, and BS 7799 audit standards. These are rapidly becoming the global standard for information security management.

The audits examine not only the technology protecting your vital information assets, but all the factors relevant to effective security management. These include: security policy, the security organization, identification of information assets, personnel issues, physical security, communications and operations, access control, systems development, business continuity and legal compliance.

The result of the audit is a comprehensive analysis of all factors necessary to protect valuable information resources, including electronic data, paper documents and intellectual know-how, where the strengths and weaknesses are, and how the organization compares to a world standard.

The audit provides guidelines for improvements to IT managers, HR managers, business owners, and senior executives responsible for the governance of the organization.

ITIL Cost Benefit Analysis

An ITIL cost/benefit analysis is an effective tool to help organizations make sound plans and business decisions. ITIL planning initiatives are tested for economic feasibility including impact of costs and benefits to the organization's TCO prior to implementation.

An ITIL cost/benefit analysis can help determine where to make IT investments, whether to buy or build, and determine appropriate level of investments. IT investment cash-flows are reviewed including rate of return, return on investment, break even analysis, and net present value.

Examples of IT business case's and TCO cost/benefit analysis can include:

Incident Management

Problem Management

Change Management

Configuration Management

Release Management

ITIL Executive Briefing Overview

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library known as ITILÔ is a non-proprietary approach for managing IT services. It was developed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in the United Kingdom. Organizations around the world are using ITIL to improve efficiency and communication in IT services.

This 2 hour briefing provides an executive overview of the principles and practices described in ITIL’s Service Support and Service Delivery modules, their relationships, benefits, processes, and how to get started.

ITIL Foundation Certification (also see Virtual Classrooms)

Overview

ITIL is a non-proprietary approach for managing IT services. It was developed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in the United Kingdom. Organizations around the world are using ITIL to improve efficiency and communication in IT services.

The ITIL Foundation Certification course provides a detailed introduction to the concepts, terms, definitions, goals, benefits and relationships within the core IT service management processes and function, according to the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) best practice framework.

Based on principles described in ITIL’s Service Support and Service Delivery books, this course focuses on taking a holistic approach to IT Service Management through the use of processes, their respective relationships, and workflows. This course also prepares participants for the examination leading to the Foundation Certificate In IT Service Management, the prerequisite for the Practitioner and Service Manager levels of ITIL certification.

Course Outline

Introduction to ITIL:

	Structure of the library
	ITIL’s key concepts and objectives
	Overview of ITIL certifications: Foundation, Practitioner and Service Manager
	Outline of relationships between the ITIL processes

Detailed descriptions of the goals, benefits, challenges, management reporting, and interfaces of the five operational processes and the Service Desk function:

	Service Desk: Understanding its role and function in the IT infrastructure and its relationship with ITIL processes
	Incident Management: Definition of an incident; description of Incident Control (including recording, classification, coordination, matching, and resolution)
	Problem Management: Definition of a problem and known error; proactive problem management (identification of problems and prevention of further incidents)
	Configuration Management: Defining a configuration item and the Configuration Management Database; impact of Configuration Management on other IT processes.
	Change Management: Definition of a change and request for change (RFC); description of change control and change procedures; role of the change advisory board (CAB) and CAB/EC (for handling urgent changes)
	Release Management: Scope and concepts; definition of definitive software library (DSL) and definitive hardware store (DHS); description of planning, testing and implementing

Detailed descriptions of the goals, benefits, challenges, management reporting, and interfaces of the five tactical processes:

	Service Level Management: Definition of a service catalog; identifying, negotiating, monitoring, and reviewing service level agreements (SLAs)
	Financial Management For IT Services: Reviews of budgeting, charging and IT accounting; analysis of running costs and charging policies
	Availability Management: Review of reliability, availability, resilience, maintainability, and serviceability; calculating availability, review of planning, monitoring, reporting, and the Security Management process as it applies to the security of data
	Capacity Management: Review of application sizing, workload, performance, demand and resource management and their inputs to modeling; definition of the Capacity Management Database and contents of the Capacity Plan
	IT Service Continuity Management: Review of Business Continuity, risk analysis and risk management; defining assets, threats, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures (protection and recovery); development, testing and maintenance of the IT Service Continuity Plan; IT recovery options and management roles

ITIL Maturity Assessment

View Video Presentation

The ITIL Maturity Assessment is used to determine the current maturity of the organization's process compliance in relation to the ITIL framework.  The ITIL Maturity Assessment includes review of opportunities, threats and assessment of the following processes:

Service Delivery	Service Support
Service Level Management	Service Desk
IT Financial Management	Incident Management
Capacity Management	Problem Management
IT Service Continuity	Configuration Management
Availability Management	Change Management
	Release Management

TCO & ITIL Best Practices Workshops

Fast-track TCO Management by adopting the "Best Practices" of leading organizations. Learn which best practices are currently implemented in your organization, their level of maturity, and their relative impact to TCO?

The goal of this workshop is to determine where the "low-hanging fruit" is in your IT Management process which can then be turned into a quick success.

Current and future Best Practices will be individually explored by a discussion group to determine the scope (effective coverage of the best practice across assets and users) and level (effective impact that the best practice has on the organization).

Review of Best Practice areas including:

Asset Administration	Incident Management
Operational Management	Problem Management
Customer Service	Change Management
Training	Configuration Management
Technology Planning & Process Management	Release Management

TCO Cost Benefit Analysis

A TCO cost/benefit analysis is an effective tool to help organizations make sound plans and business decisions. IT planning initiatives are tested for economic feasibility including impact of costs and benefits to the organization's TCO prior to implementation.

A TCO cost/benefit analysis will help determine where to make IT investments, whether to buy or build, in-source or outsource, and determine appropriate timing. IT investment cash-flows are reviewed including rate of return, return on investment, break even analysis, and net present value.

Examples of TCO cost/benefit analysis can include:

	Best practice improvements (help desk, asset management, systems management etc.)
	Technology migration planning (technology life-cycle & refreshment strategy, O/S and application software migration etc.)
	Server consolidation
	Support management process, tools and strategy
	Lease vs. buy
	In-source vs. outsource
	Buy vs. build.

 

Operational Maturity Analysis with CMMI

Extensive experience in Operational Maturity Analysis allows us to offer clients expertise in all aspects of process analysis: maturity base-lining, redesign and improvement, technology enablement, human resource (H/R) implications and cost benefit analysis.  Using capability maturity model integrated (CMMI) - we are able to baseline the maturity of your processes for gap analysis and future follow-on measurements.

The result is balanced and effective redesign of business processes to improve productivity of core operational activities, reduce costs, and improve service levels to clients. Our approach uses a team-based foundation, involving the operational, financial, H/R, and technology experts within an organization to collectively analyze, improve and implement those processes essential for remaining competitive in today's business environment. Operational maturity analysis examples include:

Help Desk	Network Management
Procurement	Training
Deskside Support	Operation Support
Asset Management	Database Support
Email Support	Storage Management
NT Support	Unix Support

Financial Systems Analysis

Over ten years of analyzing, selecting and implementing financial and accounting systems for clients in a variety of industries and geographies, and for organizations of varying sizes, allows us to provide financial IT consulting services geared to satisfying organization financial systems needs.

We have experience with:

	Banking,
	Insurance,
	Securities firms,
	Foreign Exchange companies,
	Small Private Sector Business,
	Non-profit Organizations,
	Public sector financial systems.

Our clients can be sure of financial solutions to their business problems that are realistic, practical and cost effective.

Business Requirements Definition

We have extensive experience in working with businesses that are going out to tender for business IT solutions, and helping them define the business requirements for those solutions.

Internal staff often do not have the time or the skills to step out of their day-to-day roles, and define their operations and business needs succinctly, objectively and with in the terms necessary for potential bidders to respond effectively and productively.

We can work with you to bring clarity, precision and timeliness to defining those requirements. The result is well qualified bidders, effective use of time for all parties concerned, and solutions that meet an organizations business needs.

Request for Proposal (RFP) Writing

Need help producing documents for vendors that describe the business requirements necessary from potential IT solutions?

We have the experience and skills necessary to work on all aspects of the RFP process, from the business requirements definition, to production of the documents, evaluation of responses, and the negotiation of a contract.

Clients benefit from services that allow their own staff to remain concentrated on their core businesses activities. We augment their roles with specialized analytical, writing and negotiating skills to help them acquire and implement the optimum systems for their business needs.

Cost Allocation & Charge Back

Need help in determining how much to charge back for your IT services? We can help define how much it costs to deliver your IT services allowing you to charge back for services rendered.

Different pricing mechanisms are created based on variable service levels options, hours of coverage models, transaction based and user based cost models. The activity based costing approach offers excellent insight into business process improvements which translate into cost reductions or service level enhancements.

Information Technology Architecture Assessment (ITAA)

In the automated enterprise, effective and efficient business processes depend on complete alignment of business processes and IT systems support. This means that Business Architecture must be aligned with Information Architecture which in turn must be well supported by Technical and Systems Architectures. How well do your IT Systems support your operations?

Using the latest tools and techniques, including Organizational Modeling and The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), the assessment examines process flows, technical architecture, IT management and support capabilities, and options to improve IT value for improving support for business strategies and tactics.

The Information Technology Architecture Assessment evaluates the following:

	How well your IT systems processes support your daily operations;
	The completeness of information and data needed monitor operational performance;
	The extent and effectiveness of use of operational data and information reliability;
	The extent and effectiveness of use of automated tools for business process support;
	The effectiveness of decision support and reporting tools for effective management control;
	A cost/financial understanding of improvement options.

The Information Technology Architecture Assessment is designed to get at the root cause of issues hampering business performance due to process gaps between IT systems process and business performance and to make specific recommendations to improve IT value to business operations.

Management Control Systems Assessment (MCSA)

For effective management, organizations depend on the measurement and analysis of performance. Many types of data and information are needed for performance measurement. How timely and reliable is the information you receive from your Information Technology (IT) Systems? A major consideration in performance measurement involves the ability of managers to use automated tools to get at performance measures or indicators.

Being able to accurately measure the factors that lead to improved customer, operational, and financial performance represents a clear basis for aligning all IT systems with the organization’s goals.

The Management Control Systems Assessment evaluates the following:

	How well IT systems support Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), and the extent and effectiveness of their use in your daily operations;
	The completeness of data to track your overall organizational performance;
	The extent and effectiveness of use of key comparative data and information reliability;
	The effectiveness of decision support and reporting tools for effective management control;
	A cost/financial understanding of improvement options.

The Management Control Systems Assessment determines how you keep your Decision Support Systems current with business needs and aligned with your strategy. It makes specific recommendations on how to improve performance measuring both from a business and an IT systems perspective.

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