At Quadra, we take a business centric approach to delivering IT solutions and services. We realize that IT needs to be purposeful and deliver clear and consistent Rol in order to be continually relevant to business. Too often, IT is unable to setup this feedback mechanism to business, and is focussed on pure technology aspects. This lack of ability on the part of IT to deliver, results in business sending a cost reduction signal, and this goes on in a never ending spiral, which only further exacerbates the situation. This is exactly where we believe we add significant value, by helping translate technology benefits to business scenarios and in producing measurable business impact.
To this end, we combine cutting edge IT skills and experience, along with a keen sense of understanding of your business to deliver seamless IT services that help bridge the chasm between IT and business. In all our engagements, we make sure we engage in deep conversations that involve both the technical and business decision makers and make the crucial connect between technology and business outcomes. Our structuring into four distinct divisions, viz., software distribution, enterprise software support and services, business productivity and managed services have arisen out of a deep understanding of customer needs.
Throughout our engagement, we focus on helping you to :
- Correlate technology and business outcomes
- Adopt a holistic view of your IT investments
- Focus on channelling IT investments to ensure the maximum business impact
- Ensure the highest levels of availability and reliability
We incorporate tried and tested frameworks such as ITIL, MSF and MOF to ensure that we incorporate world class process methodology in our delivery mechanism. Although these are already globally adopted best practices to optimize IT deployments, what makes us different is the fact that we do not view IT as an end in itself, but focus on delivery specific, measurable business outcomes that ensures that IT is directly relevant to business strategy.
The Importance of Using Frameworks for IT Project Management
In order to maximize the success of IT projects, it is absolutely essential that one adopts a methodology which provides broad and flexible guidance for effectively designing, developing, deploying, operating, and supporting solutions. We use a combination of industry standard frameworks from Microsoft, as well as the experience gained from large-scale IT projects, the experience of our consultants in conducting projects for enterprise customers, and the best knowledge from the worldwide IT industry.
Creating a business solution on-time and within budget requires a proven approach. The Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) provides proven practices for planning, designing, developing, and deploying successful IT solutions. As opposed to a prescriptive methodology, MSF provides a flexible and scalable framework to meet the need of an organization or project team of any size. MSF guidance consists of principles, models, and disciplines for managing the people, process, technology elements, and their tradeoffs that most projects encounter.
The Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) provides technical guidance that enables organizations to achieve mission-critical system reliability, availability, supportability, and manageability of IT solutions built using Microsoft products and technologies. MOF’s guidance addresses the people, process, technology, andmanagement issues pertaining to operating complex, distributed, heterogeneous IT environments. MOF is based on industry best practices as documented in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) from the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency, an agency of the UK government.
We base our solution delivery on the following tested MSF principles :
Work Toward a Shared Vision
Fundamental to the success of any joint activity is that we have a shared vision—that is, a clear understanding as to what the goals and objectives are for the solution. You, as a customer, and our team members all bring with them assumptions as to what the activity is going to do for the organization. A shared vision brings those assumptions to light and ensures that all participants are working to accomplish the same goal. Clarifying and getting commitment to a shared vision is so important that the MSF process model designates a phase and a major milestone for that purpose.
Stay Agile - Expect Things to Change
Traditional project management disciplines and the waterfall process model assume that requirements can be clearly articulated at the outset and that they will not change significantly during a project life cycle. In contrast, we make the fundamental assumption that continual change should be expected and managed, as per the MSF framework.
Focus on Delivering Business Value
Successful solutions must satisfy some basic need and deliver value or benefit to you. For organizations, the key driver is business value. A solution does not provide value until it is fully deployed into live production. For this reason, the life cycle of the MSF process model includes both development and deployment of a solution.
Foster Open Communication
Historically many organizations and projects have operated purely on a need-to-knowbasis. In other words, information is only given to people who can prove that they must have the information to do their job. This approach frequently leads to misunderstandings which impair the ability of a team to deliver a successful solution. Using the MSF process model, we adopt an open and honest approach to communications, both within the team and with key stakeholders. A free flow of information not only
reduces the chances of misunderstandings and wasted effort; it also ensures that all team members can contribute toward reducing uncertainties surrounding the project. For these reasons, the MSF process model provides review points. Documented deliverables keep the progress of the project visible and well communicated.
In order to provide you operational guidance that enables you to achieve mission-critical system reliability, availability, supportability, and manageability, we use the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF), which is a collection of best practices, principles, and models that offers guidance to IT organizations for managing their IT services. Built on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) from the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom, MOF is a framework for managing the operations and support of IT systems, making adjustments due to changing business needs, and optimizing processes for greater efficiency. MOF simplifies IT processes using a model illustrated with clear, easily understood diagrams that divide IT services into four quadrants: the Supporting Quadrant, the Changing Quadrant, the Operating Quadrant, and the Optimizing Quadrant. All components and their relationships can be seen at a glance.
The goal of MOF is to help IT organizations achieve reliability, availability, supportability, and manageability in their mission-critical systems. Because MOF practices are easy to incorporate, either selectively or comprehensively, operations staff can realize tangible benefits by following the model. Applying the principles of ITIL to the Microsoft technology platform, MOF provides a foundation to help IT organizations meet the challenges described above and support the goal of continuous improvement
