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Most large systems implementations are handled as a project, resourced by either virtual teams, or permanent teams within the organisation. Regardless of the structure used, the net effect is to impose a large resource drain on the normal running of the business. Scale Abilities have tremendous experience at all levels of project work, and are pleased to now make full infrastructure resourcing available as a formal offering. Why Use Scale Abilities? On or under time, on or under budget: Project Nirvana. However, reaching this goal is fraught with issues that fall outside of the absolute control of the project management. These include: - Insufficient resource or insufficient skills during planning stages lead to unrealistic milestones
- Resourcing peaks and troughs associated with staffing the project carry an unpredictable lag, delaying the project and increasing costs
- Finding sufficient highly skilled individuals if often impossible, or not practical for the durations in which they are required
Using Scale Abilities as the source of infrastructure resource for the entire project lifecycle is a simple and low cost solution to these problems. Scale Abilities can provide a single source solution to the entire project infrastructure needs, from single individuals, to full project management of the entire project from a systems and database standpoint. The actual mix for a given project is driven by the client, and can include combinations of Scale Abilities consultants, existing in-house staff, new-hire staff sourced through Scale Abilities. Consider the following comparison of a large traditional in-house project lifecycle to a Scale Abilities lifecycle: | Project Phase | In-House | Scale Abilities | | Pre-Sales (Internal or External) | 3-6 months elapsed time, disruptive to FTE cost-centre. Possibly no resource available at required skill levels for effective sale. | One principal consultant, experienced in sales process, assigned on an adhoc basis for approximately 3 weeks during sales cycle. | | Design | 4 FTEs, 2 months. Challenge to find suitable candidates in house without significant latency | Two top-class consultants, one of which was engaged during the sales cycle, to provide focused infrastructure design, including high availability elements, full quote management, vendor negotiations, and budget control. Duration: One month, due to extensive prior experience in systems design. | | opt: Benchmark | 4-6 FTEs, 3-6 months. Quality benchmarking skills are extremely rare in-house, and may need to depend upon recruitment efforts. | Three highly experienced benchmark consultants will deliver reliable, high-quality benchmark results in three months. This includes the required build time, the dominant portion of achieving a worthwhile benchmark exit. | | Build | Estimated 16 FTEs, 2-3 months. This phase must include the ramp-up time for recruitment of final project team. | Five consultants, picked for their experience in best-of-breed systems implementations. Would include resource for DBA, Systems Administration, and Storage Administration. This is a critical phase, laying down the foundation upon which all future operations will take place. Includes: taking delivery of hardware,configurations, High availability testing, database build, Standards of Procedure documentation, full system test, and delivery for production use. | | Pre-Production | 16 FTEs minimum. As FTEs, the headcount cannot be temporarily reduced and so the full cost must continue. This phase is often used to invest in the training of these new-hires | Two consultants, one month. During this phase, SLAs will be negotiated and created, maintenance procedures written, and monitoring infrastructure implemented. The consultants used will demonstrate great experience in technical writing, and monitoring software implementation. | | Production | 16+ FTEs, typically spending a great deal of time firefighting at this stage. | Estimated six consultants providing 24x7 support, and recruiting permanent staff. Includes full handover and rapid transition. | In many situations, using the experience and flexibility of Scale Abilities provides a clear cost saving and quality improvement over traditional resourcing methods. Every project is unique, and the best way to quantify the Scale Abilities difference is to contact us for a detailed assessment. For confidential discussions, please contact us.
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