A large international software company engaged us to help manage the integration of system infrastructures of a recent acquisition. The integration effort involved operations worldwide, including 14 international sites.

Point B led the team that analyzed the acquired company's business processes, applications and support systems, then worked with key internal stakeholders to determine how they would support each of them. We developed action plans and managed the migration of all business functions and data. The result? The project was completed without a glitch in three months, enabling the merged organization to do business effectively. We remained sensitive to morale issues that arose with the merger, and helped our client to address them in a way that motivated key employees to stay on.

Point B helped a regional hospital and medical center in Seattle to implement a multi-phase CIS. This Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) solution captures medication orders at the point of care, reducing errors and making orders immediately available for action by other departments such as Pharmacy and Radiology.

Point B built the CPOE work plan, organized the project and assisted with functional design, testing, training and conversion planning. The orders implementation took place 12 months later and went remarkably well. The initial conversion of patient orders was completed in just 14 hours, a feat that has taken other institutions several days or more to complete.

A large state government agency tapped Point B to improve service by reducing the time its customers spend waiting in lines. We talked to administrators in order to understand their goals for the division, then observed customers and analyzed the existing service process. Using this data, we designed creative ways to eliminate tasks, perform tasks in parallel, and allow customers to perform tasks on their own.

Based on Point B's recommendations, our client reduced average customer wait times by 30% in one major metropolitan office -- without adding staff. They were then able to replicate this proven success in other offices. Overall, Point B's simple process improvements made a positive, measurable and long-lasting impact on the division's efficiency, while raising its level of customer service. The project went so well it was selected as one of the projects for the Governor's "Governing for Results" award.

After several years of effort and four postponed go-live dates, a media and entertainment company realized that it lacked the in-house project leadership skills to implement a core business application. Point B was engaged to turn the project around.

Building on the project's strong points, we revised the plan, modified resources, re-baselined the schedule, and refocused the application vendor. Point B's leadership brought the project in on time and within budget. This ultimately led to a spirit of genuine cooperation between departments where communication barriers had previously existed. We also helped to raise, and deliver on, expectations from merely "getting the system in" to leveraging the new platform in ways that measurably improved business.

A major telecommunications provider asked Point B to coordinate the transition of application development and support for a mission-critical system to an outsourced offshore business partner. The system itself was tremendously complex, with a Web-based architecture, high transaction volumes, numerous interfaces and more than 27,000 end-users.

Point B created the transition plan and managed it to completion. We wrote the Statement of Work between the company and its offshore partner. We then interviewed the offshore resources to ensure their qualifications met the needs and would ultimately protect the client's investment in the project. We also coordinated the creation of detailed documentation, facilitated knowledge-transfer sessions and defined the new development process. The transition was completed on schedule, leaving a satisfied client in an excellent position to benefit from its offshore strategy.

Cascade Corporation, a major heavy equipment manufacturer, retained Point B to lead its Sarbanes-Oxley compliance program. We began by examining all critical processes across multiple domestic and international locations. This, in turn, led to the remediation and testing of hundreds of accounting and financial controls.

As more information became available from the SEC, the project required multiple variations on the initial approach, a test of Point B's flexibility and creativity as project leaders, which, we're happy to say, we passed with flying colors. The project is on track for completion well before the mandatory deadlines.

A major wireless communications company faced challenges balancing competing interests to make a critical purchasing decision for its call center. It was an extremely important decision -- fundamental to the company's ability to support more than 70 million calls each year.

Point B established a software selection approach, solicited and documented requirements, and issued a RFI to selected vendors. From the responses, we narrowed the field and issued a formal RFP. Among the contenders, one vendor excelled in nearly every category, which simplified the choice and removed subjective influences. Point B's objective perspective and neutral selection process helped the group make a unanimous decision that was projected to save the company around $18 million per year, while maintaining its high quality of service.

While leading a project for a media and entertainment company, Point B noticed that its Information Technology (IT) department did not have the caliber of staff needed to be successful. We investigated and found significant issues with compensation and recruiting.

With minimal investment, Point B tailored a basic but effective recruiting process for the organization. We trained individuals on effective techniques to assess the candidate and promote the company. We participated directly in several hiring decisions to advise on compensation and ensure that training was taking hold. The results were dramatic. The client became adept at screening and recruiting, which led to better hiring decisions and, ultimately, a much more effective IT organization.

Since July 2001, Point B has led a number of security initiatives for one of our clients -- including managing machine security patch levels, mitigating account security risks, protecting source code, and facilitating the definition of security requirements.

As a global project leader, Point B led business, operations, technology, and security teams to develop security solutions that allow information to flow between partners while mitigating the risks of unauthorized access. As business analysts, we integrated our client's security and business requirements and drove the implementation of those requirements into new products and services.

A leading on-line travel company planned to move its website data center -- consisting of 575 servers and 2 terabytes of data -- to a new outsourced hosting facility. The magnitude of the move and high switching costs made it imperative to select the right vendor and ensure a smooth transition.

A single Point B consultant led a thorough vendor selection process that resulted in the best vendor, based on the company's most important criteria. Three Point B associates provided leadership on the highly complex assignment of coordinating the move itself, which included more than 75 client and vendor personnel. In the end, the project was a huge success. Site stability was declared after only 24 hours of production load. The selection of the right vendor and transition led to substantially upgraded service levels and saved the company over $1 million per year.

Point B helped an international manufacturing and retail company with an SAP HR/Payroll implementation that involved 30 interfaces and supported 40,000 employees in 30 states. We helped manage the overall project plan, drove issue resolution, and communicated across the team and to executive management. We also managed the development and testing teams and filled a variety of business roles. In each of these roles, we helped to guide decisions and lead the team.

The conversion and implementation occurred without interrupting the company's payroll or HR services. The success of this project reinforced Point B's longstanding relationship with the client.

Point B assisted a regional medical center with a Pathways Financial System implementation to replace the center's 29-year-old general ledger, accounts payable, materials management and reporting systems. It was a large-scale organization change that required training 300 operations and clinical staff.

Point B served as the project leader for the first phase of this change, leading a team of internal staff and application vendor resources. Our client's controller was extremely impressed with Point B's ability to get things done on time. This opened the door for Point B's involvement in the second phase, which was being managed internally and had fallen behind schedule. Our client reassigned project leadership to Point B and engaged another Point B associate to accelerate process redesign. We brought Phase 2 to successful completion as well, launching a financial system that will serve our client well into the future.

A struggling telecommunications provider was losing its IT director and did not have an internal candidate suited to the role. Seeing significant problems that needed immediate attention, Point B offered its services to fill the gap.

We met with the departing director to understand the status of numerous projects and began fiscal year planning for budget, personnel and operations. We looked at ways to outsource key operating and IT functions to help the company run leaner. With this assistance, IT operations continued to run without any interruption in service. We convinced employees to stay with the company through its rocky period. And our structured project leadership approach got the IT and operational groups back on track before a permanent replacement arrived.

A Point B client found itself with 27 related initiatives on its plate -- an enormous task that arose from the need to merge a subsidiary into the parent company while simultaneously implementing a new systems platform.

Point B was initially engaged to manage one of these projects. Once we had proven our leadership ability, our client asked us to take on additional responsibility across the program. Working closely with our client's internal team, we helped run a PMO for 18 months through the completion of these initiatives. We conducted weekly status meetings with project managers, and facilitated monthly Steering Committee meetings. The PMO helped resolve issues, allocate resources, mitigate risk, and coordinate interdependencies -- and when all was said and done, our involvement that started in just one area led to a very successful outcome for the entire program.

Point B was engaged by a startup computer software company to help develop a business case and operating strategy.

We began by assessing the company's product relative to current market needs. This helped build a picture of the product features and service offerings that would best position the company for success. We then developed a market plan, and made alliance partnerships a key component. The plan included five-year financial projections and annual targets to illustrate the company's evolution and viability.

Based on the business case, the software company successfully changed its market focus. Point B also helped the company form an advisory council of industry experts to continue to refine its product and market development strategy.

When a major international retailer acquired a smaller competitor, Point B was brought in to integrate the smaller company's distribution system with the acquiring company's inventory system. Point B led the process to define the business requirements for the ongoing operation of an acquired distribution center, led the design development and planning for testing of the interfaces that supported the requirements, and managed planning of the data conversion prior to go-live.

Point B played a key role in leading the project team, managing the involvement of the distribution system's vendor, and integrating this project with other facets of the acquisition in which we were involved. The project has been able to meet time and budget targets in a highly complex IT environment.

Northwest Hospital & Medical Center (Seattle) needed to update the hardware and operating system on more than 1,200 workstations to support a new clinical information system (CIS). The upgrade, which also involved new productivity applications, needed to be completed quickly and seamlessly in order to maintain staff efficiency and ensure patient safety.

Point B helped build the business case for this project, obtained funding and resources, developed the plan, organized the team, and managed all stages of the rollout. Workstations were upgraded for each department at exactly the same time that staff was attending three hours of customized training. On-site support and a hotline were available for two weeks following each department's upgrade. This highly successful rollout finished ahead of schedule and under budget.

A Seattle-based multi-specialty healthcare provider was faced with escalating costs, declining reimbursement for services, increased competition, and continued pressure from payers to manage care and risk. In light of these challenges, the clinic's leadership set out to identify its strategic goals, and engaged Point B to help develop a long-term IT strategy that would support these goals.

Point B worked with the clinic to develop a five-year plan that outlined IT initiatives and their likely costs and benefits. The clinic has followed this plan over the past two years. During this period, we have provided advice on project charters, acted as interim project leader on an initiative, and helped identify ongoing staffing requirements for a project manager to lead the implementation of their new practice management system.

In 2001, the U.S. Congress passed enacted legislation that, among other things, required certain organizations to dramatically change a major business process -- what was a two-week effort must now be completed in 48 hours! One of our clients was among those affected and engaged Point B to help with several of its related compliance initiatives and programs.

Point B worked with our client's staff and management to identify issues and collaboratively develop solutions. One solution called for a new division of labor along with reorganized and retrained teams. Each team monitored and maintained metrics they had helped to define. Point B worked with the HR department to revise job roles and increase compensation. Along with helping to roll out the compliance initiative, the revision of job roles created new efficiencies that enabled the provider to increase its cost effectiveness.

An international manufacturing and retail company engaged Point B to help implement a state-of-the-art CRM application. The system is designed to support sales and account representatives and their teams, helping them to be more efficient and improve customer satisfaction.

Point B provided leadership in several areas of the project. We defined business requirements for the system, managed project scope and timeline, and managed vendor staff through all development stages. We also managed training and communications activities to help ensure a smooth deployment. Our involvement helped the client see the larger business implications behind seemingly straightforward technology decisions. Since the system has gone live, the company has already reduced its account set-up time, enhanced reporting, and integrated sales leads captured through its website. These early, measurable benefits have validated the company's plans to expand the system to other business units.

A state agency asked Point B to help lead a large statewide implementation of a new human resource management system -- a type of project that we've done many times before. So what's unique about this one? Our role goes beyond project leadership; the state has contracted with us to act as its advocate in managing a contract with a leading systems integrator and software vendor.

We manage the contract and provide program leadership across the myriad business processes, technologies and organizational areas impacted by the system and the Personnel System Reform Act (PSRA) of2002. We also supervise a state team of 40 functional and technical resources representing a dozen state agencies. All deliverable and quality assurance reviews are conducted directly by the Point B associate on the state's behalf. Based on clear direction from the state, we've established a solid communication channel and work closely with our client to ensure that the project stays on track as it moves toward completion.