Engagement Examples

• Interim Operations And CIO Functions.  
  Occasionally, there are circumstances when a manager leaves unexpectedly or there is a work bulge and the current manager must temporarily oversee a new project or location.  This necessitates a need for temporary, experienced assistance to supervise the day to day functions or the bulge tasks. 
  
• Identification Of Procedural Related Efficiencies Opportunities
  There are a number of areas where management suspects a problem but hasn't the time to run it down and correct it.  For example, missing delivery schedules, backlogs in customer service, payroll and scheduling reviews, locating additional margin increments for new and existing products, or eliminating steps in a procedure or process.
  
• Locating, Qualifying, And Vendor Negotiation for Hardware And Software Applications
  Identifying competent, competitive vendors for enterprise software, point of sale, inventory management, decision support, time and attendance, human resources, financial applications, warehousing and distribution, bar coding, etc is a plus effort for existing staff. The consultant can gather requirements and prequalify vendors, guiding the retailer's staff through the process to minimize their workloads.
  
• Implementation Of Hardware And Software Applications
  Implementation of major projects requires coordination with all affected user communities. This is often difficult to do when the process is exclusively controlled by a peer department where empathies for sister departments may not be primary.  A consultant can often achieve needed timely coordination through understanding both IT and user requirements. In addition, the consultant should have had significant rather than occasional experience with large implementations along with knowledge of how vendor firms operate in these circumstances. The consultant will provide early warnings, make suggestions as to how others have been successful and reduce the end to end time for the implementation.
  
• Functional Design For Internal Software Development
  A good consultant should have experience in both the IT and user departments. He should be able to discern what problems users are trying to conquer and translate that with the IT technical staff into solutions. A broad understanding of how multiple departments interact and how efficiencies can be added during development can often reduce the time required for projects and produce a finished product that is readily accepted and used. The consultant provides insight and protection.
  
• Profit Based Analytical Reporting
  With the large number of transactions over large numbers of locations, it is worthwhile to design and utilize a reporting system that demonstrates areas for monitoring and improvement.  These KPIs such as weeks supply, markdown performance, open to buy and other ratios and flags make large amounts of data manageable and useful.  A consultant, working with merchandising or operations departments and the IT staff can design reports requiring a minimum of scrutiny but which lead to effective results..
  
• Business Planning For Strategic Retreats And Meetings
  A neutral consultant can organize in-house or off site meetings with specific agendas to focus on business problems and solutions, budgeting and action plans.  Consensus building among staff at these meetings will go a long way in toward smoothing changes or implementations.