PROVISIONAL LEADERSHIP

MSS can provide temporary leadership in your business to fill event driven operational voids caused by

ACCOUNTANCY ASSISTANCE

Too many times the owner(s) of a business fail to see the reason for its success or failure.  Obviously, it is extremely important to know and understand the successful steps so they can be continued.  Likewise, the trail to any downfalls should be known in order to prevent it from being repeated or to allow it to be corrected.  MSS can help you discover whether the cause of your business’ success or failure is through its accounting, bookkeeping or auditing practices.

ADMINISTRATIVE & TECHNICAL PROCESS DEVELOPMENT

ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSES

Processes are commonly considered to be 60-80% of overall company expenses.  These processes are the tasks required to keep your company functioning smoothly.  First of all, whether you have a large company with many divisions or one with only small departments, you cannot get desired synergies without some sort of “road map” to guide all steps of the organization.  Secondly, a common problem that a growing company encounters is when it tries to automate undocumented processes.  Much blame is put on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems such as SAP, People Soft of Baan when the problem is not having manual processes or any commonly accepted administrative procedures to begin with.   Additionally, even in large corporations, critical information is often known only by a few “indispensable” people. 

 

This is where professional consultants from MSS can help you in a big way.  They can

 

These same services can also be used to either document or automate needed administrative processes used as a service for your clients such as processing loan applications or managing rental properties. 

 

TECHNICAL PROCESSES

Whether your need is a basic PDIM (Plan, define, implement & manage) methodology or a software development life cycle (SDLC) process, MSS can be a valuable partner in helping in its design.  MSS has consultants experienced and knowledgeable in non-industry specific methodologies such as PMI’s (Project Management Institute) as well as our own priority process and major methodologies such as CMM and Performance Management.

 

MSS also has consultants experienced with major vendor proprietary methodologies such as HP’s Focus PM, EDS GAD GMS, Motorola’s Six Sigma and GM’s SDP.

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT

Whether your company uses internal or external programming resources, MSS consultants can assist with

ASSET MANAGEMENT

When you need a set of business practices that join financial, contractual and IT inventory functions to support life cycle management and strategic decision making for your IT environment, MSS can either help you with your existing process or recommend and/or install an appropriate system to track all elements of the software and hardware that are found in your business environment.  MSS can

BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT (BPI)

Did you know that some facts about your organization could be a perception and not necessarily be true?  It’s all in how the fact is perceived.  For example, the President of the United States would not want to tell the country in a news conference that the First Lady was sober last night (a fact!), would he?  That would give the perception that she is usually not sober!  Likewise, you would not want to tell an employee that he/she is doing good work today, would you?  That would imply that he/she does not usually do good work.  MSS BPI processes can not only find ways to improve your business’ physical process but also find ways to improve the organization’s morale, as well!  MSS can show


With MSS, you can know that your business is in an optimum state or discover before it’s too late to make the needed changes to keep ahead of your competitors.  However, even if you are at optimum performance, you still need to continuously look for better ways of doing business or your competitors will!  As Tom Peters says, “If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway!”

BUSINESS PLANNING

As mentioned under Accountancy Assistance, too many times the owner(s) of a business fail to see the reason for its success or failure.  MSS can examine your company’s goals, strategies and actions to ensure your business is on its path to survival and growth.  Your business planning needs may either be for profit or contingencies.

 

PROFIT-MAKING BUSINESS PLANNING

Profit-making business planning encompasses all the general planning that a business must do, not only to start a business, but also to successfully run an ongoing business. The best known tool to use for this kind of planning is the business plan.  MSS consultants can corroborate the validness of your business plan (or write one for you) and help your company see that it is not a do-it-and-forget-it planning exercise but a breathing document that needs to be updated throughout the lifecycle of your business.

 

Business planning is not just a one-time event or should it be an annual-only event.  To be effective, it must be done both frequently and consistently.  The business planning process of reviewing progress on business goals and targets and setting new ones should take place at least monthly.  Your managerial staff can be augmented by a time-saving MSS resource to ensure that your business’s focus stays on setting and meeting its core goals and targets.  It is also important to keep this kind of exercise ongoing, even on a daily basis, in order to allow your employees to focus not only on achieving your company’s goals, but also their own goals.

 

CONTINGENCY BUSINESS PLANNING

Ask most anyone in your IT Department if they have a Business Continuity Plan (formerly known as Disaster Recovery Plan) and the most likely answer is “yes” (If not, MSS can put one together for you.).  However, what would happen if your business encounters some kind of crises?  Whether it caused by a new government regulation, a move by a competitor or some other emergency such as a man-made disaster (internal, as well as external), you should have a MSS consultant help you implement a plan to deal with any and all anticipated emergencies.

BUDGETING ANALYSIS

If anything should be used to steer a business in its correct path, it is the budget!  However, not only small but large corporations too many times see its budget not as a rule but simply a guide.  Howbeit, literature is replete with life’s horrors that resulted from individuals that failed to either not follow their “guide” or to hire an astute one.   The same follows with any business or corporation.

Guides or better yet “rules” keep the universe running from the lowly ant to majestic solar systems with businesses somewhere in between.  Budgeting is one of those basic business principles that, if ignored, will cause disaster.  A MSS consultant can validate your budgeting process (or create one for you) to ensure that it will predict with reasonable accuracy if any of your endeavors will result in a profit, a loss or will break-even.  MSS is capable of helping you establish or maintain any of the following typical budgets:


  Business start-up budget
Corporate budget
Event management budget
Sales budget
Production budget 		  Cash Flow/Cash budget
Marketing budget
Project budget
Revenue budget
Expenditure budget

 

And, of course, a budget can also be used as one of your pricing tools. 

BUSINESS STRATEGY ANALYSIS

Even when you have all the management resources you need, you should always use an unbiased entity such as an independent consulting firm to help you see what your company’s real strengths and weaknesses are as well as its opportunities and threats.  MSS not only has a preeminent ability to elicit the internal factors from your employees (to determine the strength and weaknesses) but also to help you to determine your company’s opportunities and threats as compared to the external factors (such as competitors, government controls, new technical innovations, etc.).

BUSINESS FLOW ANALYSIS

Are all your company’s process flows documented?  Are they all automated?  Do your data and financial flows coincide with the physical and automated flows?  This is one of the areas that fastest improvements can be made in any business.  For example, MSS recently found that an electronic repair process in a Western Tennessee company not only had the physical location of incoming parts fail to agree to its reported location through its many stages of repair, but there were also overlaps and voids in ownership of the various stages.  Operations were successful only because of dedicated and loyal employees.  However, disruptions occurred when key employees were absent.  After all process flows were made congruous, the actual location of the parts was always known with its correct status and ownership.  Absenteeism no longer had a negative effect on the company’s operations.

BUSINESS & TECHNICAL WRITING

Of course your employees can write.  (You would not have hired them if they couldn’t, right?)  But, do they know how to be clear, unbiased and persuasive in order to get the intended results of their writing?  You need effective writing whether it is to be for a proposal, press release, web content or a communication to your own employees. 

 

Writing sells your products and services, promotes your company and delivers your message whether it is business or technical—internal or external.  MSS can write effective scripts for your technical gurus as well as their correct business interpretations.

COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING

Your company should construct a formal communication strategy to ensure that its organizational communication efforts actually make an impact and have lasting results.   The communication efforts must tell a consistent story, using multiple channels with a consistent message, look and feel.  With today’s rapidly changing business environment, communication can only be effective when all organizational levels of management are involved in the communication planning process.  Active participation by all employees is also required in order to obtain complete employee understanding and the required commitment.

 

A communication plan incorporates challenges throughout the communication process and defines strategies and specific actions for overcoming those challenges. MSS uses a facilitation and prioritization process to assist companies in developing a Strategic Communication Plan.  Working with your company’s communication champion, experienced MSS staff will assist to prioritize the communication needs considering all the different audiences for each type of communication initiative. This planning process provides a clear structure and written expectations for future communications, for efforts to maximize the effectiveness, and focuses to align the communication process with the company’s overall strategies. The result will be a communication program including action plans with timelines for implementation.

COMPANY TRAINING

With so many training options available to your company and its employees these days, MSS can offer a partnership that will ease the pain of deciding what training, how much training and how often it should be given.  MSS offers a unique training methodology that will assist your company in the planning, designing, implementation and ongoing management of all training programs—for business, technical or certification purposes.  This includes all aspects of the training program from policies to meetings.  MSS also offers virtually any type of training through its many alliances formed over the last decade.

HELP DESK STRATEGIES & DEVELOPMENT

Whether your need is for a Totally Automated Intelligent Management Answering System (TAIMAS) or an offshore technical Help Desk, MSS has the expertise and knowledge to help you develop your appropriate customer support strategies.

 

If you have a large company with a complex organizational environment, a MSS Help Desk Needs Analysis (HDNA) may be in order to flush out possible informal support personnel (ISP).  Sometimes an ISP is only discovered when he/she is absent, quits or transfers to a new location or company.  More and more companies (and organizations within companies) are discovering that this is the biggest need for a formal process or system to give internal employee support.  Many times the cost for such support is covered in productivity savings previously lost when a more experienced worker stops to give support to fellow workers. 

 

ISPs are not only found in technical organizations, but also in any line of business that contains processes—and that is just about any business!  A higher paid productive employee should not have to be stopped to give advice or guidance to a newer or lesser paid employee.

 

The reasoning is the same when you provide a product or service to external customers.  The bottom line is to have lesser paid personnel handle routine questions, recurring problems or to give help in understanding processes or procedures—whether they are technical or administrative.

IT SYSTEM INTEGRATION

One of MSS’ core competencies is linking together different computing systems and software applications physically or functionally.  MSS can bring together discrete Information Technology (IT) systems utilizing a variety of techniques such as computer networking, enterprise application integration, business process management or manual programming.  In today’s connected world, the role of system integration is becoming more and more important: more and more systems are designed to connect together, both within the system under construction and to systems that are already deployed.  MSS integration specialists have the software and hardware engineering experience, interface protocols, and general problem solving skills to solve the problems with an input from a broad range of engineering to "pulls it all together.”   MSS consultants have years of experience with major integrators such as HP, EDS and Motorola.  Below is the diverse list of companies they have either worked with or are presently contracting to work through to provide your company with the best IT solutions possible at the most reasonable costs.  


  Acer
Amazon PC
Apple
AREA Data Systems, Inc.
Blackberry
BuyDirectPC
Compaq
Cray
CyberPower PC
Dedicated Computing
Dell
Digital Storm
Fast Track PCs
Fujitsu
General Dynamics
Gigagbyte
Halogen PC
Hewlett-Packard
Hitachi
IBM 		IThought Technologies
Iron Systems
LG
Link Computer Corp
MDG Computers
Mercury Computer Systems Inc.
Mesh Computers
Micro-Star International
Microtel Computer Systems
Nade Computers
NEC Corp
Nexoc
Olivetti
Panasonic
POWERCHIPPC
PsyStar Corp
Realm Computers
Rugged Notebooks
Sager Notebook Computers
Samsung Electronics 		Servers Direct
Sharp
Shuttle Inc.
SGI
SIRIUS Computer Systems
Socket Mobile Inc.
Sony Corp
Sun Microsystems
Super Micro
Systemax
TabletKiosk
Tadpole Computer
Thinkmate
Toshiba
Unisys
View Sonic
Window PC
WinBook
Winpro Infotech
Wyse Technology Inc.

JOB DESCRIPTION & JOB PROFILE ANALYSIS

To some Management personnel, defining employee jobs, tasks, functions, roles, competencies and responsibilities are just as daunting to them as when trying to define company goals and objectives, etc.  Using industry job banks of terms, definitions and cross industry experience is where MSS can help you greatly.   

 

Job descriptions are best used to guide the selection of desired personnel and their subsequent performance.  Job Profile Analysis is best used to formerly document an existing job in order that it can be duplicated.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM)

As more and more individuals are realizing the importance of preventing identity theft, more and more businesses are realizing the importance of preventing knowledge theft—howbeit by loss through

 

This is because more and more work of a company is information based and (1) companies compete on the basis of knowledge, and (2) knowledge and information have become the medium in which business problems occur.  As a result, it is essential for your company to maintain and manage its knowledge to achieve not only substantial savings and significant improvements in performance, but also to increase its competitive advantage.

 

Since “knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns” (J. M. Clark, Journal of Political Economy), this would be a good starting point for KM consultants at MSS to help your company implement the best practices, tools and processes so it can


In addition, and most importantly, our consultants can evaluate the methodology your company uses to address each step of the information chain illustrated here:

 

                                

 

 

 

 

 

Your IT department may be performing the elementary tasks of data and information management, but who is in charge of your knowledge management?  MSS consultants can help you implement this very important step which in turn will enable your company and its employees to obtain the necessary wisdom (the last step in the information chain) to perform, manage and compete exceptionally!

LEGAL COUNSELING

There are times, howbeit only about 5%, that attorneys are actually required by state or national government in business affairs.  Having being a legally incorporated entity working with every other sort of legal entity for sixteen years on a consultation basis have given MSS special insights on when and where to use legal counseling.  Proper business acumen can save your company hundreds, if not thousands of dollars annually by using your own non-legal resources or consulting resources such as those provided by MSS.  Likewise, countless money can be saved each year by properly using available legal resources.  This is where MSS can be of the greatest help—to help you in this determination.  MSS capabilities offer full legal counseling processes in addition to core management support services and processes.

MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

Management consulting is one of the core capabilities of MSS in which it can help your organization improve its performance, primarily through the analysis of your existing business problems and development of plans for improvement.   These endeavors can give your company external, unbiased advice and access to our specialized expertise.  Because of our exposure to and relationships with numerous organizations, we are also aware of industry best practices, many of which can be transferred to your organizational needs.  MSS consultants can also provide organizational change management assistance, development of coaching skills, technology implementation, strategy development, or operational improvement services.

 

MSS also has its own proprietary methodologies and frameworks to guide the identification of problems, and to serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing your business tasks.

MARKETING & SALES STRATEGIES 

“Selling is marketing, but marketing is not selling”

 

Which of the marketing “four P’s” (Product, Place, Price or Promotion) advantages does your company have over your competitors?  Not knowing is a real indication that you need to call MSS.  Marketing intuition (acumen) alone can make or break your company’s entrance into a new field of endeavor and/or it can ensure that your existing endeavors enable your company to continue to grow. 

 

However, all the business processes and structures that MSS (or any other consulting firm) can help you with will be of no value if your company does not have proper marketing.

 

Marketing is not selling, however.  And you cannot enter a market without having any products or services to sell.  A simplified diagram of this process is depicted below which shows that after a business is formed, some kind of marketing strategy has to be formulated (which usually come from the idea for the business in the first place, right?).  Plans for products or services can be started during the marketing campaign (or vice versa) but sales efforts, which can also include marketing plans, cannot start until after the products or services are created (or should not).

 

Business Entity

          (SM)

 

Marketing

 

 

                    Products or Services

Market

 

 

     Sales

 

 

 

 

MULTI-VENDOR MANAGEMENT

Mixing teams of internal and external suppliers is a good way to increase value; however, it’s more than likely not your core business.  The fact that you have many suppliers testifies that you can be good only at one or two things.  (This is also the reason MSS subcontracts with multiple vendors!)

 

Ensuring that all your internal and external vendors understand how to work together is vital.  Although internal vendors (other departments) work for the same organization that you do, does not necessarily mean that they will share your objectives.  Additionally, having various external vendors (sometimes competitors) working in your company environment can be a challenge to even the best security policies.

 

To solve these and all other multivendor issues, let MSS help you develop the proper framework to drive the appropriate behaviors from all your suppliers—whether they are internal or external.  In turn you will be able to exemplify the seamless solutions you desire.

ORGANIZATIONAL PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT

MSS consultants are available when your company needs assistance in gathering significant cross-departmental dialogue during your company’s strategic planning events.  They can also share their experience in helping your define your company’s

 

Organizational Planning, which includes staffing changes and resource allocations, is needed when you need to reevaluate your company’s immediate and long-term objectives or to formulate and monitor specific strategies to achieve them.

 

Organizational Development experience is available to help your organization manage change while keeping affected employees healthy and authentic.  This is done by simultaneously getting your employees to expand their views of your organization and their experience in it, and to see the necessary responsibility for their own actions as organization members.  This produces new ways of working together that will allow them to achieve their own goals as well as your company’s goals.  When this does not happen, such activity will help your company understand why and to make meaningful choices about what to do in light of this understanding.

OUTSOURCING

Is your company seeking to realize benefits or address some of the following issues?

 

  Access to talent
Capacity management
Catalyst for change
Cost restructuring
Cost savings 		Enhance capacity for innovation
Focusing on Core Business
Knowledge
Operational expertise
Quality Improvement 		Reduce time to market
Risk management
Scalability
Tax Benefit
Venture Capital

 

Does your company need organizational help from these industry experts?

 
  Administration
Accounting
Customer Service
Engineering
Finance 		HR
Information Technology
Legal
Manufacturing
Marketing 		Operations
Procurement
Program Management
Sales
Training

 

Whether your company needs industry expertise or to save money (main reason for most), MSS has the management expertise and the network to all your solutions!

PROGRAM & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Growing companies or companies going through changes often struggle deciding whether a new endeavor will be permanent, long term or very temporary.  MSS has found that using five key organizational elements, Governance, Management, Financial Management, Infrastructure and Planning can be used in this determination.   If the new endeavor will have no need of cross functional activity and can be managed within an existing organization using traditional management, that organization can be augmented.  If the endeavor is simple in nature and will have cross functional activity on a short term basis, MSS can supply a Project Manager.  If the endeavor is complex and is needed to be completed over a long time through many projects then MSS can also supply a Program Manager.  If the findings justify, MSS can aid your company in setting up a new program management organization to handle frequently added endeavors (discussed under Program Management Office).

 

In all events, our Program Managers and Project Managers will follow your company’s protocol or methodology, PMI’s basic methodology or use an excepted industry standard methodology.  MSS’s own proprietary methodology is also available.

Program Management Office (PMO)

If your company has many ongoing projects, you may have a need for a Project Management Office (PMO) which can define and maintain the standards of process.  MSS can design a PMO to be operated by your internal staff or by MSS specialists.  In either case, it would standardize and introduce economies of repetition in the execution of all your projects. The PMO would then be the source of documentation, guidance and metrics on the practice of all project management tasks and execution.


The establishment of a PMO coupled with the use of project management tenets will help your company control the onslaught of demand for new initiatives.  A PMO, while systematically managing the cycle of your cross-functional teams, will also allow your functional managers focus on the health of the organization, relationship management, maintenance, and long-term resource issues. 

 

A PMO will not only assist greatly in situations where accountability, ownership, functional boundaries, and risk are difficult to establish, but also when your company has more than one technology or your subject matter expertise crosses functional boundaries.   

 

Let MSS help you implement a PMO strategy that can be used to:

PROGRAMMING

Professional software specialists at MSS are dedicated to designing and developing solutions for those that believe there is an advantage to having technology that specifically meets their needs.  We have a well established record of success and experience supplying and implementing large development projects and software products across a number of industries in the US.

 

Any and all parts of writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining source code can be done by our software specialists.  Modifications can be made to your existing source, as well.

PROPOSAL MANAGEMENT

MSS can do all your commercial and Government proposal management, writing, and reviews!

Sure—you can get proposal management software, and so can everyone else.  But don’t you need to differentiate your proposals from the mass?  Don’t you need someone to help your “forest” to be seen as well as its “trees”?  Let the years of proposal writing and development experience at MSS not only jump-start your proposals, but also thrust them to failure only because you do not have the right solution!

RESEARCH SERVICES

Do you keep putting off that research project because of being too busy, or is the lack of proper information from a professional search firm keeping you from getting the business you desire?  In either case, the search professionals at MSS can find the information you need while you stay tuned to your core work.  Here is a list of some of the just-in-time-information (JITI) areas that MSS has recently helped with other clients:

 

  Benefits Analysis
Compensation
Competition
Economic
Educational
Employment
Entertainment 		Investments
Location
Market
Medical
Manufacturing
Patents
Pricing 		Products
Promotions
Purchasing
Salary
Scientific
Technical
Travel

WEB DEVELOPMENT

MSS is a premier provider of custom promotional and e-commerce web sites, web applications, web site maintenance and creative strategic design services. Our solutions enable companies of all sizes to capitalize on the latest design trends and web technologies.

 

Our broad base of knowledge and expertise in design, web development and online marketing enables us to take a strategic approach to web site development that considers business goals and objectives, usability, and technology.

 

Although customization or integration of off-the-shelf software (COTS) can greatly reduce your development cost and time-to-market, they often are not scalable and cannot be customized to your organization's unique requirement. Our approach to custom application development and our technical capabilities offer many benefits and enable us to develop the custom applications that our customers need to meet their goals.

 

Since web sites and web applications require ongoing monitoring to ensure consistent, optimal performance, MSS developers can perform these services, as well.  They can also perform updates regularly with new content and functionality to reflect changing organizational and business needs.