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When you invest in a  business solution, you should ensure that you work with technology providers and system integration partners to help you plan, develop, and deploy your system. Advisorysoft is an interactive agency, technology consulting firm, and system integrator that provides help through every stage of the technology planning, deployment, and support process.  We specialize in combining management and technology to provide real-life IT solutions:  networks, crm, erp, ecommerce, intranets and portals, and more. Our consultants have the experience and expertise to align your IT vision and business goals. 


Our Mission

Adding value is our mission.  Click on any of the sections below to learn how we add value for our clients.

  • Assessment and Review Services

    • If your organization is in the early planning stages for a major operational system, Assessment and Review Services provide in-depth evaluation of business requirements, plans, architectures, and designs of operational systems and environments.  This early state service allows you to identify and mitigate risks and realize benefits quickly.

  • Planning, Architecture, and Design Services

    • Do you need help building a solution from the ground up?  These services will help you create plans for business solutions and technical architecture as well as design infrastructure and mission-critical applications.  Based on a proven approach, this service includes assessment and review documents that are developed in-house and extend beyond the scope of Assessment and Review Services.

  • Proof-of-Concept Services

    • After you have finished the planning and design stage of a solution, Proof-of-Concept Services will deliver a prototype or pilot for a particular project.  This service empowers you to mitigate technical risks and accelerate the formation of a project team prior to the development or deployment of your IT solution.

  • Implementation Service

    • Your partnership should include agreement on how much design, coding, and testing will be allocated to each member of the partnership.  No matter who you partner with, you need assurances that the solutions partners are experienced in designing this type of system, that their coders are knowledgeable and experienced with this type of business system and the tools and software needed to develop it, and that the partners can test the code, not just on a PC in a lab somewhere but on site or in simulation environment that takes into account all the variables of your system.

    • This should not be an "extra", or something that is thrown into the discussion at the last minute; instead it should be discussed when the project groundwork is laid, and you should receive assurances that the partner you are working with has top-of-the-line credentials.  This is your business, after all.

  • Deployment Services

    • Your partners should not just be "code jockeys", but should also have experience with enterprise-level systems and the supporting infrastructure.  They need to know how your systems interoperate and how to work within any system constraints.  This knowledge contributes directly to planning for solution deployment; your solution partner must understand how to plan for system capacity (and its attendant scaling and availability concerns), system and data security, network firewalls and topology issues, and hardware and software infrastructure.

    • These factors all go beyond focusing just on what needs to be built and go toward understanding how to build it and how to minimize complexity or fragility.  It would not do to have the best content management system in the world if you can handle only 100 subscribers or is regularly unavailable because of system downtime or network bandwidth issues.  Make sure your partner has this knowledge and familiarity with the entire network, not just the server.

  • Operations Services

    • When you partner with solution providers, they should be able to help you with operational services for your solution that include training and guidance on how the system is maintained on a daily basis as well as long-term monitoring.  You should discuss target goals for system availability or uptime, baseline performance goals, page views or transactions per minute, or other metrics that can be built into the system or monitored by existing services.

    • Operations planning must also include the more mundane but equally important task of backup and disaster recovery, ongoing system maintenance with software upgrades or solution enhancements, and system expansion recommendations for increasing capacity by scaling up, scaling out, or increasing system availability through redundancy and elimination of single-point-of failure weaknesses. This type of system planning is done for the long term, not the short term, and will be of continued benefit long after the solution is up and running

  • Support Planning

    • Sometimes a solution partner will tell you that once a system is installed and running, you're own your own--the reasons cited usually include the idea that too many things can happen, the systems are no longer under the sole control of the provider, and so forth.  However, reputable solution providers don't send you a "thanks for the memories" card at the end of the project; they are able to provide you with support and planning for the life span of the solution.

    • Support planning services start at the post development phase and cover the system's overall health and operational status.  This includes providing guaranteed response times on trouble calls or system alerts, problem isolation, troubleshooting and preemptive maintenance, and even ongoing system and software updates, service packs, and patch installations.  These services complement your existing IT service and support staff with people knowledgeable about the new business solution, and they provide the added benefit of knowledge transfer from the services staff to your own department.  The most powerful weapon you can have is the ability to bring in the experts quickly.  When a system hiccup means money lost, you don't want to spend time on hold, waiting for the next available front-line technician

  • Custom Solution Services

    • Other needs can be met with custom solution services for your business, such as short-term technical project planning or post deployment service-level agreements or guaranteed response times.

 


Company Profile

Advisorysoft is an interactive agency, technology consulting firm, and system integrator offering "lightweight" solutions with added services such as consultation, support, integration, and custom development.  Started in 1991 by Eric Smith to combine the strategic advice and counsel of a management consultant with the technology knowledge and skill of a technology consultant.  Eric Smith received his undergraduate computer science degree from Northwestern University and Masters degree in management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.  

 


Contact Information

Telephone
773 731-5106
FAX
773 731-5106
Postal address
8342 S Dante St., Chicago, IL 60619
Electronic mail
General Information: administrator@advisorysoft.com
Sales:
Customer Support:
Webmaster: administrator@advisorysoft.com

 

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Last modified: 02/14/10