Consulting

Discover

Fact-based analysis is the critical starting point for the development of any sound technology strategy. This phase helps companies avoid the risk of relying too heavily on preconceived or erroneous notions of their situation – notions that can lead to costly oversights or mistakes.

As a first and most crucial step, Umbian conducts a comprehensive assessment of an organization’s industry dynamics, competition, and customers. Our assessment provides a snapshot of the current environment to enable us to identify areas of opportunity, as well as difficulty. It is Umbian’s belief that a deep, early understanding lays a solid foundation for all subsequent phases of the consulting process.

Define

The Definition stage articulates the value that an organization will offer its internal and external stakeholders and the means by which it will deliver it. Defining which markets and customers to target, understanding the company’s role in the value chain, crafting an appropriate business model and devising organizational requirements are some of the elements in this phase.

The Definition phase is critical, because it sets the direction for the company – the “what” of the technology initiative. To be given life, however, the initiative needs to operationalized; defined in terms that will allow the supporting organizational and technical infrastructure to be constructed. This is the next step - the “how” of the strategy - which we call the Solution Design phase.

(Solution) Design

The Solution Design phase translates the strategy that has been defined for a company into a blueprint for action (i.e. technical and organizational requirements specifications). This blueprint enables the technical and organizational pieces to come together in support of the chosen strategy. These pieces include the applications, hardware, software, communication infrastructure, personnel requirements, partners, project schedule, and processes among many others.

Without this phase, implementers will be unwisely deploying technology in the absence of guidance, possibly resulting in costly reworks or poorly integrated systems and processes. This phase is also substantial in that it allows all stakeholders to review the proposed solution prior to engaging technical resources.

Solution Design, therefore, reduces costs and ensures that the total solution will operate as required in support of the specified strategy.

Develop

The Development stage is where the tangible pieces of the strategy come together; application development, hardware and software support, and communications infrastructure. This phase requires intense coordination between various stakeholders, including development groups or third-party service providers, to ensure that technical details of the design are properly executed.

Umbian can oversee the development as well as coordinate the multitude of organizational activities that are required to successfully develop the intended applications.

Deploy

Launching the new technology initiative is the final phase of the Umbian consulting process. The Deployment phase requires the synchronization of many parts of the organization. It is a process where details matter and the right resources must be engaged and energized at the appropriate time for success.

If the details of the launch phase are not sufficiently planned, or the required tools are not available to those who need them, even the best strategies can be short-circuited. Time spent here can payback enormously.