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Our initial
consultation costs only a bit of your time - we start by
sitting down with you and listening to your questions, concerns and ideas - in
order to learn what you want.
If you
contact us, we'll get together with you for an hour or so, listen to you and
provide some information on how to get you to where you want to
be.
If we both think Mercury can help, we will prepare
a proposal for services that will explain:
- The nature of the work we will do,
- The benefit your organization will derive
from the effort,
- A breakdown of project schedule and
deliverable items,
- The full cost to you.
You will know before work begins
exactly what work will be done, what benefit the work will be to your
organization and what your costs will be.
Our
experience and education in Business Management and Information Technology
allows us to provide you with extraordinary assurance that our service will
exceed your expectations, be on-time and be cost effective.
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Consulting FAQ's
A Philosophy
The recent and ongoing advances in technology are only remarkable if
they can be effectively and efficiently applied - as a tool to help
people do what they do, better.
Mercury is about helping you apply and
integrate those technology tools into your organization. |
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Frequently Asked Questions about Consulting
...
Q. How expensive?
A. That Depends ...
Our initial contact with you costs nothing - except a
little of your time. If we can help, any charges will be based on what we do
for your organization and will be itemized in our proposal. Please note that
the charges we will quote to you for our services will typically be quoted as
"Not to Exceed" - you will know up front what your maximum costs will be,
before we begin.
To give you an idea of the range of typical costs for
our services:
Database Developments can range from a
few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on the complexity.
One of our fairly involved databases for a small business client included
Payroll, A/R and A/P, Accounting Reports, Work Order Processing, Employee/Shop
Efficiency and Financial Analysis functions and was billed at
$3,800.
Web Site and Internet Presence full design,
development and implementation for a fairly simple 10-page web site is
typically under $2,000 for initial design and setup, and under $50 per month
for ongoing domain name lease, hosting and site
adminstration.
Business Process Analysis, Custom
Software Development, Support and Training charges are typically either
included in conjunction with other services we provide, or will vary over a
fairly wide range, depending on complexity and other factors.
Q. Is your approach any different than other
consultants?
A. Dramatically different ...
Most consulting firms (particularly in the technology
industry) are affiliated with some particular brand of hardware or software,
and they're more interested in marketing their brand than consulting. They'll
do something similar to the approach I outlined above and call it a "Needs
Analysis" - beware of that phrase ...
If
they're affiliated with Microsoft®, they are going to conclude that you
"need" Microsoft® stuff,
If they're affiliated with
IBM™, they are going to conclude that you "need" IBM™
stuff,
...
If their solution is a
Hammer, your problem gets re-defined, 'til it looks like a Nail
*,
Mercury Business Systems has no affiliations
with any brand of hardware or software.
The only
vested interest we have is the efficient, effective application of Information
Technology and best practices in Business Process. Our focus is to point you to
the most appropriate technology available, regardless of brand or supplier. (It
might be Microsoft® or IBM™ - or it might not.) In any event, not
having affiliations means we're not marketing any particular "wares."
* The "Hammer ... Nail" analogy is paraphrased from Eupsychian
Management: A Journal by Abraham Maslow.
Q. Any other
differences?
A. Use of
Project Management and Systems Development Methodology
...
Mercury applies strict, rigorous Project
Management and Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
methodologies to every contract and project we take on. A successful
project is not a matter of luck, nor do successful projects "just happen."
Successful projects are those that are completed on-time, within budget and
deliver what the client wanted - and they result from proper planning and
project management.
Mercury generally uses
Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) methods and techniques.
The CCPM methodology is an enhancement that addresses and resolves several
weaknesses with conventional Critical Path Method (CPM) techniques - see
Sciforma CCPM White Paper or the
Goldratt Institute for a
more complete explanation. Most importantly, CCPM provides a project management
methodology that does a better job of reducing the risk of schedule and budget
over-runs.
We are also experienced with, and can apply conventional CPM
techniques, if our client prefers.
The SDLC
methodology we use is a 7 Step process of getting from Problem
Recognition (Step 1. - where we listen to what you want) to the on-going
Maintenance of a completed system solution (Step 7.), in a logical,
phased approach.
Many consultants go immediately from
their "Needs Analysis" (see above) phase, to the "Design" phase of their
solution, typically with limited success.
Mercury, on the
other hand, will deliver a proposal after we have evaluated the basic
feasibility of our recommended solution (or solution options):
- Technical Feasibility - is the technology truly
available, or is it "vaporware", etc.,
- Operational Feasibility - what are the user
training requirements, impacts to your current business processes, etc.,
- Cost Feasibility - is the solution within your
budget and will it provide a return on your investment.
Incidently, the Feasibility Study is
Step 2 of the SDLC methodology.
The project management
and system development methods we use are scalable - they can be applied to all
projects, large and small. Mercury's Primary Consultant
has performed project management functions (using these methods) on projects as
diverse as simple database developments, to commercial software developments
for Mercury clients, to multi-million dollar weapons system developments
(involving multiple suppliers, sub-contractors, engineering disciplines, etc.)
for various defense contractors and agencies. These methods
work.
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| ©
1997-2002 Mercury Business Systems |
Update:
07/11/2002 |
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MercuryInfoTech |
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