The ’Hybrid’ business and systems experience of our consultants enables us to contribute effectively to all aspects of a system implementation and react quickly to customers’ requirements, without the acclimatisation that might be required by more generalised consultancies.
Implementation Services
Project Management
ATD consultants have a record of continual success in the management of critical I.T. and business change projects. The PRINCE2 concept of structuring a project around its key deliverables is the cornerstone of ATD’s methodology. We ensure that quality reviews of the deliverables have true value, focusing on the business benefit of each deliverable, rather than being mere "box ticking" exercises. We have our own issue / error management database application, within the XTLQuanta software to coordinate all changes that arise during the course of a project, from minor bug fixes to fundamental business transition.
Business Transition
ATD believes that all system implementation projects should have a sister project with the generic title "Business Transition", to give formal recognition to the many non I.T.-related tasks that have to be carried out alongside system changes. ATD consultants have been heavily involved in the business transition activities associated with a number of large-scale system implementations: we are accutely aware that a project will fail if it does not support the business to which it applies, and equally if the business does not support it.
Business / Systems Analysis
Recording business requirements is not just listening to what people say and writing it down in a standard format. ATD’s industry experience means our consultants know your business and so can quickly understand, analyse and challenge business needs in order to effect a better end solution.
Design and Development, Reporting, Interfacing
ATD has experience in the design and delivery of software solutions across a range of business areas, and as a Microsoft partner is skilled in the use of the latest technologies and tool sets. Please refer to the Case Studies and Software Solutions sections for more details. As well as delevloping software for customers we develop our own applications, an example being our XTLQuanta software.
Testing
ATD believes that the testing within a project should be structured at three levels, and our consultants are experienced in all three:
- Unit Testing - testing based on business processes not individual pieces of software
- System Testing - complete testing of business processes according to a pre-defined business flow
- User Acceptance Testing - complete testing to be carried out by the business supported by "the project".
We also believe that testing should be an integral part of any I.T. development process, so that tests should be planned and specified during the analysis and design phases, and executed as early and as often as possible.
Migration
Migration is usually on the critical path of any project and may generate more issues than all the other project areas put together. ATD has its own tried and tested methodolgy for data migrations and believes its business knowledge and technical expertise can significantly reduce risks in this often complex (and often underestimated) activity - please refer to the Data Solutions section for more details.
Financial Reconciliation
Perhaps the single most important acceptance criteria for a financial system is to achieve financial reconciliation within a given tolerance. We have achieved consistent success in our projects to date in coming orders of magnitude inside the agreed tolerances for key general ledger accounts. We also have extensive experience of implementing both tactical and strategic systems to automate the reconciliation of bank accounts and other key balance sheet accounts. Our reconciliation activities are supported by configurable functionality within our XTLQuanta software.