Technical Consultancy

Types of Technical Consulting offered by ESRI (UK)

• Project Management
• Software design
• Architecture
• Data consultancy

Project Management

ESRI(UK) Consulting project management methodology is structured around the PRINCE2 framework.  PRINCE2 is license free and is owned and regulated by the UK Government and is the Office of Government Commerce’s recommended project delivery methodology. PRINCE2 is a proven project management method which can be tailored to suit a wide variety of needs and is therefore suitable for all types and sizes of projects.  The benefits of using this methodology include:

• It is a Repeatable Method
• It is Teachable
• It is Based on Experience

All our services are undertaken within a controlled project environment and all our project managers are trained in the PRINCE2 methodology and many have nationally recognised certification qualifications.

As part of our general project management service our staff will work with you through the project life-cycle and our project planning services will typically cover Scope, Schedule, Resources, Budget and Risks.

Software Design & Development

Analysis
ESRI(UK) provides a range of analytical services which are designed to help you maximise the benefit from any project. These services include analysis of a range of requirements including:

• User
• Business
• Functional
• Non-functional

We will work with you to fully document your requirements and to undertake business process modelling based on best practices.  We will spend time with your organisation to understand your processes and pain points, we will document the 'As-is' and 'To-be' business processes.  We will work with you to choose effective methods for the collection and collation of the various requirements and we will also work with you to choose an effective method for documentation these processes and communicating these with the subject matter experts

In summary our requirements management method will assist you

• Analyse the problem
• Understand stakeholder needs
• Define the system
• Manage the scope of the system
• Refine the system definition
• Manage changing requirements

Design
ESRI(UK) has extensive experience in the delivery of software engineering design services.  Our experienced software engineers will provide design leadership for your project and we use industry standard methods to provide effective and efficient services for the delivery of your system. 

A typical assignment will involve ESRI(UK) specialists working with the customer on the design of the following system components: 

• Data model
• Application components
• H/W and S/W architecture
• Integration

Our database design service provides an opportunity to leverage our specialist knowledge and  experience of contemporary database theory to design databases that are highly responsive to each organisation's needs and fully integrated with its business or enterprise applications and internal and external third-party systems. 

Our application design service takes the specified requirements and from these defines the software architecture, components, modules, and interfaces necessary to deliver the agreed requirements. 

Our hardware (system) design service will prepare system designs based on common technologies, environment, business requirements, configuration options, and design components, and the application architecture and will take into account the major design challenges such as communication, security, scalability, resilience, concurrency and performance.

Our methodology for workflow integration of GI solutions with other business or IT systems within the Enterprise is increasingly based around the evolving standards of Services-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and web services and messaging.  The ESRI use and deployment of web services for specific business application services is based on standard Internet protocols such as Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) and Web Service Description Language (WSDL).  Web services are developed and used by ESRI to enable applications to dynamically advertise their own capabilities. This gives applications the ability to search for other applications whose services they can invoke over the web without prior design or negotiation.  Web services are becoming the de facto approach for enterprise level application integration. 

Development
The ESRI(UK development method includes configuration management, coding and testing and typically will cover the following activities:

• Component design refinement (design reviews)
• Component implementation (coding and unit testing)
• Component testing (integration, performance and system)
• Demonstration to users/stakeholders

Typically each of the above will be part of an iterative process the objective of which is to gain client acceptance and approval at each step of the process prior to proceeding to the next stage and eventually to the deployment stage.  This method minimises the risk of a mis-match between requirements and deliverables and also allows for the management and containment of project scope.  Enhancements or changes to the scope are controlled through a formal process of review, examination, and reporting with requests for change managed via the project board.

Every significant development project implemented by ESRI(UK) uses a  configuration management method documented by our QMS.  The method includes source-code control, a code release and patch plan, the implementation of a defect tracking system, and regular communication of defect status with users/stakeholders.    

Solution Architecture and Design

Data Consultancy

Managed Services

Provision of managed services lends itself to a variety of service areas including those which use 'predictable' work patterns, those where specialist skills may be required for the implementation and ongoing support of a business system, or those where regular and consistent input is required. The implementation of a managed application service with ESRI(UK) provides for the availability of specialist expertise to be available in the right place at the right time.

The service offerings can cover a range of requirements with a variety of deliverables including

• Help desk support
• Application maintenance
• Configuration management
• Change management
• Data management
• Application enhancements
• Business analysis

The benefits of a managed application service include:

• Focus on core competencies
• Channel key resources
• Improved service levels
• Control costs
• Reduce risk
• Facilitate scalability
• Improved return on investment
• Operational efficiency