Consulting
BSG's Consulting Services provides you access to the people and methodologies that BSG uses to design,
deploy and operate products, services and solutions for its clients.
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The Service
Whether you need to:
- review your business strategy in relation to IT
- evaluate new technology
- obtain technical training
- design application or infrastructure architecture
- scope, plan and manage the deployment of new technology to minimise business
interruption or;
- understand industry best practices for operating your new IT systems
BSG can offer vendor independent advice from people who have the combination of skills, qualifications and
real-world experience to help you make it happen.
How To Use Consulting Services
Our consultants combine in-depth technical knowledge with an understanding of your business and
industry to help design, deploy and operate leading-edge technologies and solutions.
BSG offers a comprehensive range of consulting services for every stage of the IT lifecycle,
including:
Assessment and Review Services
These early-stage planning services provide an in-depth evaluation of business requirements, plans,
architectures, and designs of operational systems and environments.
Planning, Architecture, and Design Services
For assistance in building solutions from the ground up, these services help you to create
plans for business solutions and technical architecture, as well as design infrastructure and
mission-critical applications.
Proof-of-Concept Services
Subsequent to planning and design, these services provide a limited functionality project prototype
to help you mitigate risks and accelerate the formation of a project team prior to development or
deployment.
Custom Solution Services
All of our services can be customised to meet your business' unique needs. No matter what your
requirements, our consultants will apply solutions according to established best practices and
procedures.
How does it work?
You can engage BSG Consulting Services in three distinct ways:
Projects - If you have a specific project to complete, BSG Consulting Services can be
involved in a part of that project or be involved throughout the entire project life cycle. This may
include engaging other teams within BSG or liaising with your own or third party organisations.
Adhoc Consultancy - Available on a time and materials basis, BSG Consulting Services can
be engaged in respect of the range of services described above, with a minimum of one day's engagement.
Technical Assurance - BSG's established Technical Assurance Programme
(TAP), enables you to pre-purchase credits which can be used at your convenience to give you access to every aspect of the IT expertise that
has evolved at BSG since 1987. Visit the Technical Assurance section
for further information.
Whichever method you choose to engage BSG, you can opt to employ any of the following consultancy
disciplines:
Business Consultant
The Business Consultant conducts business requirements analysis for systems development, reviews
working processes and provides analysis of the business for strategic and long term planning.
The Business Consultant will typically work closely with the Technical Consultant and Project Manager to
define business centric IT solutions and to ensure that the subsequent detailed design by the Technical
Architect meets the business requirements.
Within BSG, Business Consultants will be staff with over 5 years' experience in specific business
environments.
Business Consultants can also be deployed to validate existing business analysis work where an
independent review is required.
User Experience Consultants
User Experience Consultants are responsible for ensuring that systems are analysed, designed, developed and
tested in a user centric way. User centric systems reduce development and support costs and are more
effective in their ability to meet day-to-day users' needs.
BSG's User Experience Consultants are experienced in the areas of Human Computer Interaction (HCI),
Information Architecture, and Usability and Accessibility evaluation.
User Experience Consultants can conduct standalone assessments of the performance of current systems,
or be engaged as part of a multi-disciplined BSG analysis and development team to design usable systems from
the ground up.
Design Consultants
Design Consultants typically work closely with the Usability Consultants to create, develop or interpret your
existing brand for online use. They approach the online solution from both the client's and from a user's
perspective ensuring your brand keeps its integrity and look and feel, whilst adhering to both usability
standards and accessibility requirements.
Design Consultants within BSG will have a minimum of 6 years' practical experience in both on and
off-line branding, identity and design.
Design Consultants are able to recommend, conceptualise and design online solutions for the client which
can aid the client in being “self-sufficient” when maintaining the final solution; this can often be
supported with offline recommendations.
Technical Consultants
Technical Consultants develop your current and future business requirements into application and
infrastructure solutions.
Technical Consultants within BSG will have a minimum of 10 years' practical experience in the IT sector
and will be qualified to the highest standards with BSG's partners. Many also hold qualifications and/or
experience in project management.
Technical Consultants are able to analyse issues and define high level solutions and provide technical
strategy recommendations for clients. Technical Consultants also provide access to BSG's vendor independent
research facilities as well as providing regular seminar-based updates for all clients.
These individuals provide the highest level of support and are available for escalation of any technical
problems that might occur.
Project Management
BSG has a pool of Project Managers who are responsible for scoping, managing and monitoring projects across
the range of BSG business services.
Within BSG, Project Managers will be staff with a minimum of 5 years' experience in the IT sector
certified to Prince II and with knowledge of Waterfall, RAD, SSADM and DSDM methods. Most Project Managers
are experienced in network, infrastructure and application development projects.
BSG has developed its own project framework with appropriate tools and procedures to ensure that all
projects are controlled effectively. The framework has been developed with best practice in mind but is
also an agile framework which may be adapted for the particular size and complexity of the project.
An appropriate set of rules has been agreed as to when a more flexible approach may be applicable.
Technical Architects
Technical Architects will provide specialist knowledge in the various aspects of application and
infrastructure architecture.
Within BSG, Technical Architects will typically be staff with 5-10 years' experience in the IT sector.
Qualified to the highest standards, BSG architects are experienced in designing, deploying and operating
applications and infrastructure solutions from all of BSG's partners in addition to bespoke development.
Technical Architects have a defined specialist area which accounts for the majority of their work,
including research and forward planning. Technical Architects produce detailed technical solutions to issues
and can advise at a highly granular level on issues and recommended solutions. Technical Architects will
verify and check recommended solutions and be responsible for confirming the required time to complete any
tasks.
Training Consultants
Training consultants will define training requirements and then design and deliver targeted training
courses and course material.
They will have IT training experience of between 5 and 10 years and hold significant industry
qualifications. All consultants are experts in their particular fields and have “real world”
experience to bring to their training sessions. They will have experience not only of delivering training
to a very high level on a wide range of commercially available technologies, but also of developing
training for in house or bespoke applications.
Training consultants have wide experience of training delivery methods including traditional face to face
classroom courses as well as virtual training sessions delivered via a web browser. Their comprehensive
experience will help you train users in a time and cost effective manner.
How will your business benefit?
BSG Consulting Services can reduce the costs and limit the risks of designing, deploying and
operating increasingly complex application and infrastructure solutions. Additionally, there are a
multitude of tangible business advantages to be gained:
- Access to IT Industry experts who can offer vendor specific or vendor independent
advice based on practical experience;
- Access to IT skills that augment the limits of your organisation's capability;
- The freeing up of valuable resources so that you can focus on core business operations;
- The opportunity to work with a partner who will grow to understand your business and
its development and who can transpose evolving business requirements into the latest
technological solutions;
- A responsive business partner that will expertly design, deploy and operate all or any
aspect of the IT solution you require.