If you can find packaged software solutions that handle the nuances of your business, then it is likely you will not need to develop custom applications.  We understand this.  Limitations in budget and/or human resources may also challenge your ability to deliver on goals using in-house software development personnel.  We can help you evaluate the latest in packaged offerings and help you choose the one(s) that best fit your business.  We can also lead implementation and data conversion projects.  Similarly, this may be a good time to consider use of virtualization techniques if you are creating new application software environments.  Call us to find out about our packaged offerings and to see how we have organized other companies' standard components in the solutions we have implemented.

We have helped many a business achieve operational productivity gains and other advantages through these types of software improvements.  Our traditional market involves higher priced software application solutions that include source code, thus enabling incremental improvements and a peek into best practice IT without having to build it from scratch.  At a time when commoditization is the strategy du jour, many executives seem to be unaware of how many businesses have maintained their competitive edge by licensing a package and enhancing it to support their business.  Best practice change management techniques, ROI evaluation and use of information system meta-data are information facets for helping to manage costs in these types of efforts (which is where we come in).

In many cases, we can create new web pages that integrate with databases already in place, utilizing the latest proven techniques and technology.  Yet we still understand the value of fitting in with your current system and strategy.  If your company is having difficulty consolidating disparate islands of information (ERP, web and content management databases, for example), we can usually develop ways to correlate the data without manual intervention going forward.  Our strategies always recognize the need to avoid separately evolving islands of automation (because the point of cost-justification never seems to be realized when it comes to recombining the data).  Many companies are feeling the pain of this problem based on compromises made years ago in order to get to the web early.  Let us help you improve your future IT productivity by reducing or eliminating disparate sets of information, and strengthening your customer service touch-point applications.

Going forward, many medium-sized companies have people who understand the potential for gaining understanding through specialized analysis of their data using disciplines such as Business Intelligence (BI), Decision Support (DSS) and Data Warehousing (DW).  We started doing cross platform extracts in 1991 for Childrens Memorial (Lincoln Park, IL); on-demand and 4GL reporting before that.  We have had a philosophy for bringing report writing with on-demand criteria filtering to the business user for a long time.  These days, real-time graphs and charts in web pages is approaching standardization.  If your company is experiencing challenges in the incremental data gathering or data cleansing areas, call us, we can help.  The affordability of business intelligence software is increasing at this time.

your business may not be a good fit with packaged software as it comes off the shelf.
When a company establishes itself and is profitable and becomes known within a marketplace, it makes sense that it should continue with it's own tried and true formulas for success.  For these companies, we think that there are instances where the software should be adapted to the business using an ROI conscious approach.  Not all of this is much of a secret within the IBM midrange computer user's community (our traditional specialty).  However, in some ways, it is a well-kept secret outside of that market because leading companies do not broadcast their successes in the area of internal software improvements.  Granted, custom software and modification of packaged software costs more and should rarely be the first option considered.  However, customizing can be a strategic decision that pays off when the business demonstrates innovation, increased productivity, leadership or measurable increases in quality of products or service.  Make the other guys play catch-up to you.  Let us help you focus resources on activities that will leverage investment.  Call us or check out our service offerings on other pages of this website.