How does your consulting process work?

Our consulting work is driven by your objectives. We do not seek to provide prepackaged or “canned” consulting services. We customize our consulting capacities and utilize our knowledge to help you achieve your objectives by means of a four phase process.

• Work with you to establish & document goals
• Assist you in creating a project plan
• Work side by side with you to implement the plan
• Finalize, review and establish any necessary follow-up tasks for the project

Phase One: YOUR GOALS drive the process.

We work with you to define, clarify and document your goals and objectives. We produce a written document outlining your goals and objectives. Sometimes you will have already defined and documented your goals. If so, great! The point is to make sure that your goals are documented and that everyone is pointed toward the same goals.

Phase Two: The PROJECT PLAN is the documentation of what we are going to do.

We work with you to design a project plan. We identify the major components of the project. We also identify the resources necessary to complete the project. Given those components and resources, we identify the project constraints. Then we assist you in establishing your priorities with respect to the constraints. Finally, we prepare a time schedule and fee estimate. We schedule the project and review the overall plan with you before proceeding.

Phase Three: PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION turns the plan into reality.

We join with you in staffing the project (some of your people and some of our people) and executing the project tasks. We monitor the progress, quality and costs of the project throughout the entire implementation process. We strive to identify problems before they arise and discuss them with you. We take action to resolve those issues based on your feedback and our knowledge and experience. We update our fee estimate and obtain your approval to continue whenever we detect the project is materially deviating from the original plan. It is impossible to create a complete plan that anticipates all contingencies. Consulting projects are always a work in progress. Our process works to assure that your written goals and objectives for the project (in concert with your Business Plan – which is the BIG picture) drive the inevitable battlefield decisions. The key is that we communicate with you during the entire process.

Phase Four: PROJECT REVIEW AND COMPLETION ensures closure and the opportunity to evaluate what we experienced during the project.

We prepare a project summary report. We review the report with you to confirm we have met the goals and objectives established at the outset of the project. We compare actual resource utilization to planned resource utilization and review with you why any differences arose. We also address any side issues that arose during execution of the plan. In closing the project, we schedule with you any necessary follow-up or maintenance activities.

We employ this process on all projects, no matter how large or small. It is effective for any undertaking because it employs the following principles:

• Be guided by the client’s objectives—Always!
• Do everything in a cost-beneficial manner.
• Plan as thoroughly as is practical (under the cost-benefit concept) before undertaking any actions.
• Undertake your actions based on the goal-driven plan.
• Recognize that you can never anticipate everything.
• Make course corrections based on your guiding objectives.
• Recognize that communication is the key to establishing and maintaining shared goals, and thus to effective relationships.
• Review what you have done and learn from it.