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SMR Inc. I.T. Methods Improvement Services

I.T. Effectiveness and Quality Improvement Services

The Fool hopes for a better tomorrow, while changing nothing.

The Problem You May be Facing

Cost overruns, missed due dates, systems that fail to perform as intended, and perpetual conflict between the systems staff and systems users are chronic problems for organizations that use poor methods in developing and supporting information systems. Secondary effects of poor methods are escalation in the overall cost of the I.S. function and increasingly large backlogs of work. For both departmental management and for systems management, embarking on a new computer systems initiative is like opening a surprise package. If this sounds like your organization, you can take comfort from the fact that over 80 percent of your peers have the same difficulties. Our "Foundations of Excellence" programs are for those who would like to be in the other 20 percent.

What We Do

Unlike every other consulting organization that we are aware of, we see the information systems staff as only one third of the problem. The other two thirds of the equation concern the departmental and executive staff who often do not understand (or care to understand) how to effectively interact with information systems staff. To help you address the whole problem, our work follows this general pattern:

Our Work Process

We agree to a general scope of services and work together to lay out an approach.
Our consultant(s) involve executive management, departmental management, and IS management in developing the parameters of the improvements that need to be made.
Interviews and team work sessions are conducted with the key staff to determine the problem as seen from the "front lines".
Based on our "best practices" inventory of systems methodologies we develop a customized framework, within which the new methods will be developed and implemented.
We assist your own staff in the development of new methods and procedures that are effective and tailored to the level of detail required to "normalize" the systems environment.
The new procedures are presented to all affected staff.
We assist in the measured phasing in of the new techniques, so that productivity is not adversely impacted in the short term.
We assist your staff to implement a planned revision process whereby the initial versions of the new procedures are continuously improved based on your staff's actual experience with the new methods and procedures.

What results can we expect, once the new methodologies are in place?

Please understand that no consultant can guarantee specific percentage improvements in productivity and quality. Having said that, our past experiences indicate that most organizations change over an 18 month period from an environment 25 to 35 percent below "industry average" productivity to one 15 to 25 percent better than the average, for a net "delta" of 40 to 60 percent. This is usually manifested by less reliance on contract programmers, reduced backlogs of service requests, and higher thruput of projects. IS staff reductions are usually not a strong factor in the equation due to the large backlog of work to be done. In addition we find that morale is greatly improved both in systems and user organizations, due to a reduction in adversarial attitudes.

Representative Past Assignments

As you might imagine, disclosing the details of past assignments on a medium as public as a web page is a sensitive matter. SMR Representative Assignments summarizes some of our completed projects. Out of respect for our clients' privacy we have chosen not to disclose their names on this web site. We encourage reference checking, after direct discussions have established a mutual interest.

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