Strategic Planning of Systems

The Strategic System Planning is crucial to be able to:

Align the particular objectives of a business with the adequate IT strategies.
Integrate the different areas of a business under single information architecture.
Define the projects that the new technological strategies demand.
Manage the risks and budgets associated to each strategy in a systematic, consistent way.
Define improved Systems organizational structures.
Define indicators capable of assessing the effectiveness of the system.
Agree with the Client on an orderly way to manage the new strategies, to facilitate a smooth integration into the current course of business.
Facilitate the projects associated to the improvement of procedures related to Systems development and maintenance.

We have wide knowledge and expertise in developing systems plans, supported by an efficient set of methods and techniques.

Open up the possibility of generating potentially strategic ideas based on IT. The process of IT planning must of necessity be integrated with the design of the business strategy.
Implement training on the IT strategy organization-wide, a basic objective associated to the implementation of any systematic procedure.
It is crucial to develop, at all management levels in the organization, sensitivity about the importance of strategic thinking and the opportunities that IT may generate, in order to ensure the effective continuity of the procedure.
Analogical Reasoning (e.g. through the concept of general strategic Actions related to the application of IT) is a method to explicitly incorporate IT possibilities to the strategic analysis.
Keep track of IT trends. This task must be assigned to a specific employee, responsible for its execution.
Effectively integrate the strategy with the IT Plan through the active and synchronized participation of IT managers and the managers of the different business units (organization-wide training, as referred to above).

Feasibility Studies

Feasibility Studies, both technical and economic, associated to the implementation of IT solutions cover organizational, operational and technological aspects, such as:

Surveying the areas and procedures to be modified.
Assessing directors and/or managers expectations about the objectives to accomplish.
Analyzing and weighing the reengineering processes of areas and applications.
Searching for adequate technological solutions.
Issuing documents required to select vendors and products (RFI -Request for Information, RFP – Request for Proposal).

The whole process implies a minimum investment over the total cost of the project. In return, this investment guarantees the reliability and objectivity of the information and therefore, it facilitates decision-making.

Project Planning and Management

This procedure relates to the effective and adequate management of resources, time and budgets, which can only be achieved through access to information and proper management of such information to maximize effectiveness and minimize risk.

Basically the process is as follows:

Schedule Management (planning and monitoring): drafting and revision of the plan; identification of tasks completed and not completed according to schedule; checking allocated resources; re-planning; assessment of the critical path; adjustments to the plan.
Risk Management: Risk Planning & Control
Change Management: Change Request Procedure, authorization and follow-up of requested changes.
Communication Management: Meeting Agenda / Minutes; Project Reports, other forms of business communication.
Quality Management: Deliverables, Quality Requirements, Quality Control, Quality Assurance, Error Correction.
Problem Management: procedure to handle and track incidents; Escalation Procedure.
Project Library: definition, procedures and standards (control of revisions, distribution, filing or destruction), Library Structure.

Software Architecture and Engineering

Software Architecture includes a number of significant decisions concerning the organization of a System: the selection of structural elements and the interfaces that make up the system, as well as the interaction among these elements.

The resulting software shall have the following features:

Portability: the software shall support multiple hardware platforms and base software, rendering an Intranet application, as well as an Internet solution,

Access to relational data bases, both local and remote,

Scalability: the software shall support increased load, without requiring modifications to the code,

Security: not all users shall have access to the same functionality, while all of them shall have to log in,

Different types of interfaces: most of them shall be web interfaces, but some shall be stand-alone in a window environment (e.g. massive data uploading).

Software Engineering includes a number of stages sequenced to render a quality software product.

Throughout the development process user needs are translated into software requirements, in turn these requirements are transformed into layout and layout implemented in a code. The code is tested, documented and certified for operating use.

Methodologies, which are sets of techniques, models and specific knowledge, are meant to cover the complete software development cycle, from the initial stage (the requirements specified by the user) to the maintenance of the finished system, including all necessary documentation.

Methodologies are based on system documents and models generated to unify the ideas of all the actors in the development of a particular system -client, analyst and programmer. Each of these actors sees the system from a different perspective, the user focuses on the final result, the analyst on the logics and the programmer on the system’s units as objects.

We specialize in Methodologies oriented to Objects that range, depending on the size of the project, from Extreme Programming to Rational Unified Process, customizing models and documents to suit the needs of the Client.

Functional summary our consultancy team

Project Leaders in the Property Register Module of the Strengthening Project for the Public Income Secretariat of Buenos Aires Province, financed by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Redefinition of the Project and adjustment to the Master Document.
Consultants in the implementation of Data Bases for the assessment of technologies for the Information Systems Reengineering Project of the Banco de la Nación Argentina (SIGEN).
Deployment of Technological Data Bases, including information on Hardware, Software, Communications and Security for leading Argentine companies.
Members of multiple multidisciplinary teams for the Overall Reorganization of parastate social welfare organizations with over 100,000 members.
Consultants in administrative and operating reforms for multiple Argentine top-line industrial companies and banking firms.
Representatives in Argentina of global companies focused on IT Consultancy.
Members of a Professional Team with over twenty years of experience in the fields of industry, financial services and services in general.
Members of the Consultant & Analyst Program of Lucent Technologies owned by Bell Laboratories (U.S.A.)
Negotiators of the agreement for the establishment of the National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL) from the U.S.A in Argentina, at Belgrano University.
Members of the ExpertNet Program of GIGA Information Group from USA. company researching and reporting on IT, founded Ideon Gartner.
Management of the Tax-Payer Base Datacleansing Project for the General Revenue Direction of Cordoba Provinc of Argentina. Reconciliation of payments, applications and systems migration .

International Public Entities:

World Bank . Inter-American Development Bank. PNUD

Institutional Strengthening Program for the Public Income Secretariat of Buenos Aires Province.
   o Leader of the Real Estate Property Register module: customization of the project document and program redefinition.
National Public Administration Institutional Strengthening Program. General Revenue Service (currently AFIP)
   o Leaders of the METFIS module in the Second Tax Management Project for the Federal Tax Bureau (DGI).
Development and analysis of the tender specifications documents for the information system deployed by the General Revenue Service for the institutionalization of the Pension Contributions Collection System.
Redefinition of the project document for the systemization of the Real Estate Property Register – Buenos Aires Province.
Development and Implementation of the digitalized management of non-legal documents.
Member of the METFIS Executive Commission, as project leader for the development and application of new control methodologies.
Management of documents associated to the purchase of goods and services for projects financed by the IDB and/or the World Bank.
Obtaining due approval of contract scope and conditions.
Short listing of consulting firms and assessment of their technical / operating capacity to meet the requirement of the different projects.
Review and evaluation of potential contracts; advice on adequate negotiation strategy and financial considerations.
Review and assessment of technical proposals pursuant to internationally accepted standards.
Development and analysis of the tender documents containing the specifications for the information system deployed by the General Revenue Service for the institutionalization of the Pension Contributions Collection System.
Design, implementation, testing and validation of models for the crosschecking of information among different sectors, aimed at detecting tax evasion.
Feasibility studies for the selection of technologies for the use and exploitation of on-line document images.

National and Provincial Public Entities of Argentine Republic

Issuance of the project documents for the reengineering of the Real Estate Property Register, aimed at obtaining the final approval of the master document by the World Bank.
Definition of the administrative and operating circuits.
Design of the prototype system for the creation of the Electronic Real Page
Reengineering of the registration procedure.
Organization of the administrative and operating circuits for the following areas:
   o Application of Payments
   o Tax Payers Complaints
   o Adjustment and Offsets
   o Verification of Payments
   o Control of banking rendition statements
Management of Tax -Payer Data cleansing
Design and implementation of a technology migration plan
Crosschecking of data obtained from aerial photographs of non declared enhancements to urban properties.
Design and implementation of a cadastral census aimed at the verification of properties and identification of taxpayers with presumably non declared taxpaying capacity.
Design and implementation of the cadastral control operation for the identification of non declared enhancements to be added to the property tax management system of the General Revenue Service.
Design and implementation of the methodology for the reconciliation and cleansing of banking renditions, control of banking institutions and taxpayer payments.
Design and implementation of applications for the reconciliation and cleansing of data migrating from previous systems.
Assessment of technologies for the reengineering of multiple information projects.
Development of an Institutional Newsletter specially devoted to explaining the problem associated to the year 2000 and setting forth the control methodology.

Ministry of Economy of the Argentine Rupublic
Project Leaders in ECO 2000, project developed for the National Economy Ministry and its decentralized agencies.

IMOS: Buenos Aires City Municipal Welfare Institute
Reorganization and Systematization of the following areas: New Members, Medical Service, and Tourism.

In the Finance and Securities Market
Reorganization, systematization and organization per department of:
   o Microfilming, filing and digitalization of images.
   o Checks and negotiable instruments
   o Services and personal loans
   o Banking and extra banking collection
   o Account reconciliation methodologies. Cash and securities treasuries.
   o International Trade
   o Current Accounts
   o Operating costs reduction and managerial restructuring
   o Organization and systematization of the operations and administrative departments
   o Procedures and methodologies for currency conversions in the Argentine Republic
   o Analysis and implementation of the initial interface for the start-up of an ATM network.
   o Advice to Financial Institutions on registration in the Open Market Broker Register before the National Securities Commission.

In the Industrial and Services Markets
Reorganization, systematization and administrative rationalization of parastate organizations with over 100,000 members.
Deployment and optimization of systems designed to increase productivity.
Rationalization of files, with a 46% cost reduction.
Analysis and implementation of high-production systems for managing member services and suppliers.
Feasibility studies for the purchase of hardware for automated developments, reading/sorting technology and scanners.
Generation and development of standard forms.
Structural supervision of systems and procedures for the commercialization of automobile consortiums.
Consulting Analyst for Bell Laboratories’ Lucent Technologies.
Development and implementation of Web Sites for business companies and institutions.

Publications:

Our consultants have published technical articles in the following specialized media:

El Cronista Comercial.
Ambito Financiero.
Comdex Miami.
Comdex Argentina.
Consejo Profesional de Ciencias Informáticas de Buenos Aires.