Management Disciplines

Solutions that solve business problems are complex undertakings that must be carefully managed if they are to achieve the desired results in a cost efficient manner. In addition, even the most elegant solution will not produce business results unless it is widely adopted.

SEI’s approach to Organizational Change Management is a rigorous discipline designed to facilitate leadership alignment, prepare the organization for the changes to come, and ensure that the solution is useful, usable, and used. We have developed an Organizational Change Management Framework that operates as a stand-alone methodology or integrates into a standard software development lifecycle or other project management approach.

Strategic Project Management involves a combination of business acumen, execution, and leadership in order to ensure that a disparate group of stakeholders are being engaged efficiently, and focused on the desired business result.

Strategic Technology Management applies effective people, process, and technology strategies within the IT organization focused on aligning with and serving the mission of the business community at large.

The distinct advantage of SEI is the integration of these disciplines by our consultants to provide the most efficient, effective solutions to our customers.

Organizational Change Management

Each time new information systems or processes are introduced there is an impact on the organization, and business results depend on people integrating the new into their day-to-day activities.

Organizational Change Management (OCM) is the discipline of anticipating and addressing these impacts. Through pro-active engagement with the "people side" of change, OCM can help ensure that your business initiatives take root and thrive. At Systems Evolution, Inc. our OCM practice addresses this often overlooked, yet essential element of any change initiative.

Our OCM approach covers three key elements:

• Readiness
• Re-engineering
• Resilience

Readiness means ensuring that the organization has the capabilities to actually make the changes that are being planned. This begins with leadership alignment, and includes assessments of the Business Case for Change as well as organizational culture and communications. The outcomes of our Readiness activities are that leaders are aligned, teams are motivated, actions to improve readiness are underway, and key stakeholders are engaged.

Re-engineering means process or organizational changes required to meet business objectives, (e.g., streamlining processes, merging departments, or integrating acquired businesses). Our approach emphasizes alignment on the future state, and the right level of current-state analysis to provide a solid foundation. We also make sure that all necessary elements – roles, processes, metrics, procedures, and tools – are designed to the level that will drive implementation.

Resilience is the element that takes excellent designs and turns them into business results. Our approach insures that new processes and systems are well-tested and go beyond debugging to address impacts on people and the organization. We also make sure that key decisions engage key decision-makers; that managers who need to take ownership actually do so; that implementation plans are realistic and geared for success; and that your organization reaps the hard-earned learning that can accompany any significant change effort. We also focus on performance management and continuous improvement, so that the final results of resilience are your sustainable business results.

Strategic Project Management

SEI’s approach recognizes that the value of project management is much more than assigning tasks and updating schedules.  Beyond execution of a project life cycle, our Strategic Project Managers focus on leading teams and driving solutions that fully realize business goals and objectives.  This requires expertise and competencies in three areas:  Business Acumen, Execution, and Leadership.

SEI Strategic Project Managers have significant strengths in each of these areas, and are able to integrate them throughout the life-cycle of their projects. This insures that the right people are doing the right tasks the right way at the right time at every phase of the project, and that the hand-offs from team to team and from phase to phase occur without any loss of focus or productivity.

Our Strategic Project Managers are exceptional in the way they balance project features that others might trade off. They drive task performance while leading highly motivated teams; make needed adjustments with flexibility while maintaining consistent focus on goals and outcomes; and minimize risk, accentuate quality, accelerating delivery as needed, while keeping business objectives squarely in sight.

Our Strategic Project Managers have managed numerous initiatives, utilizing a variety of methodologies.  Full development lifecycle and structured development methodologies are second nature to our consultants, allowing them to quickly assimilate into your methods and practices.

But perhaps the most important distinctive capability of SEI Strategic Project Managers is their ability to bridge between the various managers and groups that have a stake in the project. Whatever the mix – operational functions, product groups, and internal services such as IT, Finance, and HR – our Strategic Project Managers are experts at ensuring that agreements are solid, in place, and maintained throughout the project to achieve business results.

Strategic Technology Management

Many companies struggle with the balance between point solution delivery and more thoughtful, planned technology execution. How to ensure that technology is designed and integrated in a strategic manner is the focus of our Strategic Technology Management service offering.

We partner with the IT organization to define and diagnose opportunities for improvement. Our goal is to leave IT better able to sustain exceptional service delivery to the business. Whether we are developing a balanced scorecard approach or defining a services oriented architecture approach, our Strategic Technology Management services are poised to deliver effective IT management solutions.

Strategic Technology Management involves more than the implementation of technology solutions. When defining IT strategies, it is important to address not only the technology aspect, but also the people and processes necessary to ensure the approach succeeds.

SEI has a strong understanding of the people side of implementing a technology strategy. We know that it may be necessary to assess the organizational readiness for adopting a new technology strategy; to devise individual or team development plans; or to define a new organizational structure (roles/responsibilities) to support the new approach. We also understand how important it is to ensure the IT strategy aligns with the business strategy, so the organization is moving forward in support of the business priorities. We have the ability to look at the softer side of IT when devising technology strategies which enables us to deliver hard results in the form of more efficient work teams that are capable of delivering against the strategy.

Our process orientation allows us to focus on the “how” of the IT organization examining areas such as development methods, release management, and user deployment as distinct, yet interwoven disciplines. We facilitate the integration of process fundamentals as well as “break-through” thinking.

Finally, our technology orientation enables us to devise efficient and effective IT strategies, roadmaps, architectures, and development approaches that our achievable and sustainable for your organization. We have such a breadth of technical expertise and the understanding of how to best leverage technology and execute roadmaps that will be successful given your environment, your constraints, and your business goals. The key to our success is knowing how to balance strategy and reality; delivering value quickly as we execute against a longer term strategy.