KMA has a new web site and our newsletter has a new look. More importantly, we
have refocused our business on four key areas of expertise:
1. business intelligence
2. knowledge management
3. productivity solutions
4. emerging technologies
In this article, I will provide some examples of the type of work we are doing
in each area.
Business Intelligence
While many organizations have done a very good job collecting key transaction
data, they have often had trouble turning this data into usable business
knowledge. In our business intelligence practice area, we work with our clients
both to understand their information needs and the data they have collected in
their transaction processing
systems. We then build a business intelligence system that extracts data and
provides managers with the data they need, when they need it.
We can quickly build business intelligence solutions using tools that many
organizations already own, including SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services and
Reporting Services to extract data from transaction processing systems and
Microsoft Office and SharePoint to provide managers and analyst with the
ability to review and manipulate data.
Knowledge Management
While knowledge workers make extensive use of their PCs to create documents,
spreadsheets, presentations, and e-mail messages, it is often difficult for
other members of the same organization to tap into the knowledge contained in
these documents. We can work with your organization to make key information
available to those that need it.
Microsoft SharePoint is the primary tool we are using to build knowledge
management systems. Among SharePoint’s main business benefits are:
-
document retrieval—replacing shared network drives with a searchable document
repository
-
corporate portal—a single location for customer, project and administrative
information
-
project sites—a place to store all key project (or customer) related
information, including both finished documents and work in process
-
version control—project members can check in and check out documents, making it
much easier for several team members to work on the same document.
Productivity Solutions
With every new version, Microsoft Office becomes a more powerful and a more
programmable tool to improve the productivity of knowledge workers. At KMA, we
customize Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint to make it easier for both
managers and analysts to do their work. These solutions include:
-
data analytic solutions that allow managers to extract data from corporate
databases to populate spreadsheets used for analysis or modeling
-
Smart Document-based solutions, which are described in more detail in another
article in this newsletter
-
presentation solutions that make it easier for managers to create PowerPoint
charts and tables that deliver valuable information and have a standard,
professional design
Often our presentation solutions work with Mekko Graphics—KMA’s business
charting product.
Emerging Technologies
If your organization has trouble keeping up with the latest technology from
Microsoft and other vendors, you might not be building the systems your
managers need to drive performance. Our consultants pride themselves in keeping
up with the latest Microsoft technologies. We devote significant time to
attending seminars, browsing the web, and reading the latest technology books.
We then bring promising technologies in-house to evaluate them before
recommending them to our clients.
We can be your organization’s ‘trusted technology advisor.’ We can work with
you to determine whether a new technology will provide significant business
benefits for your organization. We can, for example, help your organization
determine whether it makes business sense to move from your current development
environment to the.NET framework (VB.NET or C#). If appropriate we can then
develop a transition plan.
I hope you have a chance to look at our new web site (
