Get a Tech Stack Assessment in One Week

Questions we try to answer during our assessment:
  • What are your customer facing tech stacks and how user friendly are they?
  • What is the internal users’ experience and adoption level of office suites?
  • How flexible and automated are transactional systems?
  • What manual processes can be automated through automation and scripting?
  • Do dashboards and reports provide actionable insights?

What’s covered in the tech stack assessment?

You may have investments in tech components that are not being used as effectively as they could be. Sometimes, a new piece of software is purchased to solve one particular problem but it ends up creating some new ones. Unless you have a process in place for how tech buying decisions are made, you may find that Individual users and departments end up buying things that are not fully integrated with other systems. Our assessment uses business process lens to view existing and new tech investments.

  • What’s in use?
  • What’s the quality of implementation?
  • How easy is it to learn each mission critical app for new users?
  • How easy is it to get support from the vendor?
  • Is it creating measurable business value?
  • Hoe does a particular app change the cybersecurity threat landscape?
  • How much administrative and technical burden does each app create?
  • How easy is it to integrate each app with others to automate business processes?
  • Is there a process in place for bringing in new apps?
  • Who is involved in the decision making process when news IT products are purchased?

FAQs

We recommend that you start with what you have. Each choice you make in choosing technology informs or limits future choices. For example, if you are on Microsoft 365 platform and your team has acquired a certain amount of competency in being able to use Microsoft products, you may consider sticking with that ecosystem. We have identified 12 high level categories that incorporate most software purchases. We make sure that choices you make in each are informed by what’s in play across your entire organization.

There are a number of factors to consider when making this decision, such as the cost of outsourcing, the quality of the work, and the company’s own capabilities. In general, it is best to outsource work that is not central to the company’s core competencies. When making the decision of what to outsource, it is also important to consider the quality of the work that will be produced. In some cases, it may be worth paying a higher price for a higher quality product. If a company does not have the internal resources to complete a project correctly, it is usually better to outsource than to try and do the work itself.

The debate between using a single, unified business management software platform versus using best of breed software packages is one that has been around for quite some time. There are pros and cons to both approaches, and ultimately the decision comes down to what works best for the specific business. A single, unified platform can provide a streamlined solution that is easy to use and maintain. However, it may not have all of the features and functionality that a business needs. In contrast, the best of breed approach allows businesses to select the most suitable software for each task, but it can be more complex to manage. As with any decision, there are trade-offs to consider when choosing between a unified platform and best of breed software packages. Ultimately, the best solution is the one that meets the specific needs of the business.

Areas of Focus

Every business has investments in tech and digital skills. A digital transformation assessment shows how business and organizational processes, technology stacks, individual skills and team capabilities are orchestrated across systems and departments. Key questions we ask in our assessment are:

Tech Stack Optimization

  • Use what you have already invested in.
  • Provide training opportunities for users.
  • Automate labor intensive processes.

Cloud Migrations

  • Assess what you have on-premise.
  • Evaluate tech burden of legacy apps.
  • Migrate to cloud.

Cloud Optimization

  • Document all cloud assets.
  • Assess disaster recovery needs.
  • Optimize for security, and high availability.

Staff Augmentation

  • Assess staffing needs of software and MSPs.
  • Provide fully trained techs to MSPs.
  • Provide fully trained and managed developers to software companies.

Tech Stack Optimization

Your application portfolio must balance efficiency, effectiveness, costs and innovation. Making smart choices requires department level and companywide alignment. We help you think through each tech component, look at its use in production, identify key issues and make actionable recommendations. The list below shows a small number of categories of software in use in most small to medium size businesses.

FAQs

The short answer is no. We do look at them holistically though. We have observed that in small and medium companies, it’s hard to establish and sustain a formal IT procurement policy. Users across all departments end up buying separate software products to solve specific problems. We encourage everyone to come together, assess the business needs and create a process that brings some discipline.

The illustration above shows categories of applications and some examples for each. We include all categories in our assessment and optimization practice area.

Absolutely. We have a Software Integration practice area. Our team has integrated enterprise class applications across many industries including some where compliance standards stringent.

Cloud Migrations

Businesses must adapt to the ever-changing landscape of technology and stay competitive. What must stay on-premise and what could be transitioned to the cloud are key questions. Whether we are considering from an on-premise or from one cloud platform to another, a successful migration requires an organized plan that takes into consideration what your current needs are, as well the future goals you want to achieve with this change in approach – we can help make sure everything happens smoothly.

Virtualize and Migrate

  • Great option to go from on-premise to cloud
  • Many tools make it easy to go from a physical machine to a virtual machine (a VM)
  • Users see no change so change management effort is not needed.
  • The Role We play?
    Advice. Project Delivery

Upgrade and Migrate

  • After the virtualization step, there maybe an opportunity to upgrade the underlying stack.
  • New version of the underlying Operating System or middleware components like databases or frameworks.
  • The Role We play?
    Advice. Project Delivery

Purchase and Migrate

  • An example could be a move from a home-grown eCommerce solution to a new SaaS based platform.
  • Another example could be a legacy CRM or eCommerce platform to a SaaS based CRM or eCommerce platform.
  • The Role We play?
    Advice. Vendor Management

Architect and Migrate

  • Re-architect your application and develop cloud-native version from scratch. Take advantage of cloud-native benefits, such as security, high availability and reliability. Maybe the best option in the long rum.
  • The Role We play?
    Advice. Architecture. Development. IT Vendor Management

Cloud Migration Process

  • Discover: Identify all on-premise and cloud platforms and how they will be affected.
  • Assess: Identify risks and critical success factors.
  • Migrate: Follow SOPs to test functionality and resolve any issues.
  • Cutover: Go live with the new systems and monitor and resolve any service issues.
  • Optimize: Gather and group support requests in clusters and optimize the system periodically, 

Our role varies. It mostly depends on project requirements, your internal team capabilities and level of urgency. We can be simply be your advisers at the project level where your team reaches out to us for as needed advise. We can also take ownership of certain deliverables.

One of the biggest risks is data loss. When data is moved to the cloud, there is always a risk that something will go wrong and that some or all of the data will be lost. Another risk is security. When data is stored in the cloud, it is typically stored on shared servers that are managed by a third-party provider. This means that businesses have less control over their data and are more reliant on the security measures of their provider. As a result, businesses must carefully consider all of the risks before embarking on a cloud migration project.

Cloud migration is a complex process that requires careful planning and execution. There are many factors that can contribute to the success or failure of a project, but there are a few that are particularly critical. One of the most important is to have a clear understanding of the business goals that you are trying to achieve. What are you trying to accomplish with the migration? What are your key performance indicators? Without a clear understanding of your goals, it will be difficult to measure the success of the project. Another critical success factor is to have a comprehensive understanding of the applications and workloads that will be migrated. What are their dependencies? What are their performance requirements? What is the capacity of the target environment? Without this information, it will be difficult to ensure a successful migration. Lastly, it is important to have an experienced team in place. Cloud migrations can be complex and challenging, so it is important to have a team that has the skills and knowledge necessary to execute the project successfully. Without these critical success factors in place, it is likely that the project will encounter serious problems.

Cloud Optimization

It is crucial to monitor your cloud environment so issues are caught promptly. If left unchecked, technical debt will accumulate. We evaluate how things are running in the currently deployed infrastructure as well as suggest ways of improving upon that setup–all without disrupting production workloads.

Network Optimization

  • Review performance
  • Optimize bandwidth costs
  • Utilize CDNs

Storage Optimization

  • Optimize data backups
  • Optimize disk compression
  • Optimize storage costs

Compute Optimization

  • Assess utilization
  • Select the right instance type
  • Monitor event triggers and adjust

Operations Optimization

  • View cloud infrastructure holistically.
  • Optimize for performance, security and scalability.
  • Optimize response times.

Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS and Google Cloud are the big three but we are platform agnostic.

We prefer Microsoft Azure if we are working with Microsoft technologies. For solutions that are built on other tech stacks, we go by the client preference.

IT infrastructure teams need to be composed of highly skilled and knowledgeable individuals. We are generally dealing with mission critical IT systems that must be up and running smoothly all the time. This includes everything from setting up and maintaining network hardware to managing server and storage capacity. We make sure that our IT infrastructure teams we onboard on any project have very high levels of expertise, are well-versed in the latest technologies, have a deep understanding of how IT systems work and are able to rapidly respond to changes in the IT environment.

Staff Augmentation

We offer IT Tech staff augmentation services to Managed Service Providers (MSPs). Junior IT Techs have at least 3 years of experience and they can handle all Level 1 support issues. Senior IT Techs have at least 5 years of experience and they can manage any IT projects that require networking, virtualization and cloud infrastructure optimization expertise. For software companies, we can find junior or senior developers. Junior Developers have at least 3 years of experience and senior developers have at least five years of experience.

IT Tech

  • Has at least 2 years of experience
  • Conducts basic troubleshooting.
  • Gathers necessary information
  • Documents issue details for Level 1 support

Senior IT Tech

  • Has at least 5 years of experince
  • Deals with complex server or network issues.
  • Does advanced troubleshooting.
  • Works with IT vendor support as needed.

Developer

  • Has at least 3 years of experience
  • Writes and maintains code.
  • Does bug fixing as needed
  • Assists senior developers in all coding related tasks.

Senior Developer

  • Has at least 5 years of experience
  • Has extensive experience in specific programming languages
  • Creates and implements design plans
  • Has strong analytical skills.

Benefits of Staff Augmentation

  • Management: Our HR team hires not only for the top talent in their area of expertise but especially for cultural fit.
  • Flexibility: To scale, you must be able to tap into talent pools anywhere. We are one option for you.
  • Access: When you are a client, you have access to talent across the board. (Design, Development, IT OPs and Digital Growth).
  • Efficiency: Our team has developed SOPs to make remote work more efficient and secure.
  • Oversight: Co-founders, Senior IT Infrastructure and software architects provide oversight to ensure quality of deliverables across the value chain.

Sometimes, businesses find themselves in need of extra help but are not ready to take on the commitment of hiring full-time employees. In these situations, they may turn to staff augmentation or project outsourcing. While these two arrangements may sound similar, they are actually quite different. Staff augmentation refers to the practice of temporarily increasing staff levels in order to meet a specific demand. Project outsourcing, on the other hand, is the practice of hiring an outside firm to complete a specific project. Staff augmentation can be helpful when businesses need short-term help with a specific task or skillset. Project outsourcing is often used when businesses do not have the internal resources to complete a project on their own. Ultimately, the decision of whether to use staff augmentation or project outsourcing depends on the specific needs of the business.

One of the most important aspects of resource management is finding the right fit for your organization. Every company has its own culture and unique job requirements, so it’s important to take the time to find resources that match those needs. The first step is to clearly define what you’re looking for. What skills and experience are required for the job? What kind of personality would be a good fit for your company culture? Once we have a clear idea of your ideal candidate, we find resources that fit that description. The key for us is to have some time to find best possible fit for your organization.

The short answer is 0 to 3 weeks. Sometimes, we already have someone who can start on the project while we look for the right full-time candidate. If we don’t have someone already, it can take up to three weeks to give you a few candidates to choose from.

In general, we try to minimize everyone’s risk, we try to keep our agreements as simple as possible and try to keep the term as reasonable as possible.

Pricing and Engagement Model

IT OPs is a specialized area. The advice you get and choices you make in IT can put you on the right path to achieve your business outcomes using the right technologies in each area of your business. We are a good fit for small and medium businesses that are looking for strategic partners that maintain a culture of transparency, accountability and collaboration. We offer fixed price quotes for all project work, assessments and weekly working sessions and monthly support plans for activities that require systems monitoring or predictable work that has SOPs and checklists.

Tech Stack Optimization

  • Free discovery meetings up to 3 hours.
  • Purchase Tech Stack Assessment for $2,500 fixed price
  • Purchase four 90 minute Sessions for $2,000
  • Additional sessions $500 per session.

Cloud Migrations

  • Free discovery meetings up to 3 hours.
  • Purchase Cloud Migration Assessment for $2,500
    fixed price
  • Get fixed price estimates on all project work.
  • Get an estimate on premium monthly support plan.

Cloud Optimization

  • Free discovery meetings up to 3 hours.
  • Buy a Cloud Optimization Plan for $2,500.
  • Get fixed price estimates on all project work.
  • Get an estimate on premium monthly support plan

Staff Augmentation

  • Free discovery meetings up to 3 hours.
  • Get 3 resumes of already screened by us candidates
  • Interview candidates till you find someone who has the right expertise and is also a great cultural fit for you.

We believe in establishing and nurturing long term relationships. Fixed pricing puts a little more risk on our side and less on client side. We firmly believe in the value we add and know that as we get to know our clients, the value exchange equation balances out.

There are a few reasons why we don’t charge an hourly rate for our project work. First, it is difficult to estimate number of hours when there are dependencies on internal and external project teams and IT vendors. Second, an hourly rate incentives are not aligned with value. Finally, an hourly rate is not a good measure of quality of work. We believe quality of deliverable is more important.

Projects are tied to deliverables so when the work specified in a given SOW is completed, the term is completed. Our support and monthly retainer plans vary a great deal. The agreement term is calculated in a way that results in the best quality of services and deliverables.

Ready to Work With US?

We want to work with like-minded clients on difficult problems that technology can help solve. Reach out and share some basic details of what you are struggling with. Let’s see what we can build together.