We utilize a “four team” approach for all of our engagements. This approach draws expertise from our User Experience (UX) Team, Integration and Development Team, SharePoint Team, and Infrastructure Team. At any given phase in our project methodology, we may employ skill sets from different teams to meet objectives. For example, during the design phase on large-scale initiatives, members of the UX, SharePoint, Integration and Infrastructure teams will get involved to ensure the proper design for their team’s respective elements. Involvement does not need to be overkill, simply enough to ensure the right expertise in the right place.
Provided below is a synopsis of the skills that exist within each team.
User Experience Team Role
Not all projects require the same design capabilities and therefore the design team is applied differently depending on the nature of the engagement. Assuming a larger, more complex engagement, our design team will work to build an overall strategy for the solution accounting for the following:
- Behavior modifications
- Branding considerations
- Communication and collaboration channels
- Persona profiles
- Awareness, adoption, training and culture considerations
- Functional requirements
Once defined, they create the following deliverables:
- Wireframe mockups
- Screenshots
- Taxonomy and ontology structures
- Solution functional and design deliverables
- User case studies
- Awareness, adoption, training and culture assessments
SharePoint Team Role
Our SharePoint team of architects, administrators and developers has worked supporting large deployments for the enterprise and has an understanding of life on the client side. They implement best practices drawn from experience on hundreds of implementations to build out SharePoint solutions that effectively leverage SharePoint’s native capabilities. Our SharePoint team will be engaged in the following:
- Process analysis
- Infrastructure build and installation
- Solution vision and roadmap
- Governance plans
- Environment assessments and performance tuning
- Architecture and infrastructure design
- Migrations and upgrades
- Solution build and configuration
- Third party webpart considerations
- Solution deployments
- Solution support
- Planning and executing technical and end user training
The SharePoint team understands the value of effective design, manageability and client involvement. That’s why they use an iterative, agile approach that often involves multiple prototypes and proof of concepts before the end solution.
Integration and Development Team Role
Our integration team is comprised of senior resources with mastery in multiple development platforms, languages and verticals, demonstrated by the implementation of diverse solutions. They build the technology to integrate enterprise systems and third party applications and connect data silos inside and outside the organization. The Integration and Development Team will be engaged in:
- Data assessment, scrubbing, consolidation and integration
- API analysis and integration
- Legacy system stabilizations, upgrades and extensions
- Custom feed and ETL development
- SOAP, REST and WCFWeb services
- Data mapping, flow and integration documents
- Application development
- BCS (Business Connectivity Services), and BDC (for SharePoint 2007)
- Interoperability
Our resources are versed in the following languages, platforms, and database technologies:
SharePoint 2003, SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010, Microsoft SQL, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Reporting Services (SSRS), Oracle, T- SQL, MySQL, XSLFO, XSL(T), XML, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Pearl, Ksh, Microsoft IIS, Apache, Tomcat, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft Message Queue, DotNetNuke, Kentico, Microsoft.Net 2.0/3.5, Content Management Systems, TIBCO, EDI, PHP, ASP, VBScript, JSP, UNIX, Linux, Business Objects, VB.NET, ADO.NET, C, C++, C#, ASP.NET, VB.NET, C#.NET, HTML, DHTM, AKJAX, JavaScript, JQuery and J2EE.
Infrastructure Team
Our Infrastructure Team is comprised of resources with in-depth understandings of all aspects of Data Center Infrastructure including server, network and storage hardware, network and security protocols, VMware and Hyper-V virtualization, cloud environments, application scaling, performance tuning and datacenter operations.
- Members of this team will be used on engagements requiring the following capabilities:
- SharePoint solution architecture evaluation and design
- SharePoint performance problem solving
- Application performance tuning
- In-house and hosted infrastructure assessments
- Virtualization solution design and implementation
- Infrastructure management
- Storage solutions
- Network infrastructure design and assessment
- Network security evaluation and solution design
- Disaster recovery solution design and implementation
- Data backup and archiving