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Fort Wayne, IN 46825

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Staff Augmentation

K&D offers an alternative method for staffing projects when cost control is essential without sacrificing quality. We work with the tools of vendors, providing services at less cost; we are not a large systems integrator. We offer customized project staffing service that utilizes a network of the top independent consultants to fulfill a projects unique requirements. It's simple; people make the project not the company logo. Our Just in Time staffing methodology treats each position within a project as a unique requirement and is staffed based on the specifics needs.

When quality is the key to project success

K&D uses a best of breed approach to project staffing. We evaluated the competition, then asked ourselves how we could offer our customers the experience and project management methodology of a large systems integrator, at an affordable price and without sacrificing quality. Our answer: a Just in Time staffing model that utilizes a network of independent consultants.

Why it works!

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Project Management

  • Project success starts at the top. Many times project managers are asked to pull off projects without the necessary talent to support them. Their project team, often selected by external decision makers, consists of high cost professionals with the inherent restraints of a large consulting firm or the constraints of a broker of very small HR provider boutiques. We select project managers who have previous "Big 5" experience and became independent consultants because they were frustrated with the bureaucracy of a large infrastructure.
  • Our Certified Project Managers have the experience and knowledge to bring project management methodologies to the project. We support their professionals with existing templates developed for Discovery, Requirements Gathering, Project Planning and Budgeting.
  • Our Just in Time staffing model enables our clients' project managers to hand pick each team member for each role. Because they are unencumbered by the trappings of compensation models tied to profitability and staff utilization, they are empowered to pick the very best available talent to assemble their team.
  • People want to work for a manager who knows how to get things done, and to offer compensation based on contribution.
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Project Teams

  • Fact: Talented consultants have options. The best consultants often have their pick of several projects. How does a consultant decide which project to accept?
  • The best people want to work on projects where they can make a difference. To decide on the right project, they need more than a paragraph of required skills. Our JIT methodology provides the consultant the information they need to know to decide if the position is right for them (they are not over or under qualified). We provide them with the: Business objectives, project goals, timelines, technology mix, cultural nuisance of the user community and so on.
  • The best people want to work with other competent professionals. Within the independent consulting community, networking is a way of life. The consultants know who the best people are... most of our positions are filled by consultant referrals.
  • Consultant Pay: Our low margin and overhead strategy permit K&D to pay top end market rates.
  • Service: No one supports independent consultants better than K&D. We offer our consultants 15-day turn around on invoices, direct deposit and accounting support.
  • Project Moral: Just because the independent consultants are not employees doesn't mean we don't care about them as people. We plan and budget for team building activity each quarter.
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Price

  • We charge a low margin (the amount on top of the contractor pay to determine the bill rate.)
  • To maintain this low margin we have optimized our infrastructure.
  • We maintain a modest corporate headquarters in Ft. Wayne, IN.
  • We eliminated all non essential non billing technical positions.
  • No Bench costs to pass on.
  • We outsource, including offshore relationships, in every area where cost reduction could be realized without sacrificing quality.
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Availability of Talent

  • Our proprietary applicant database contains over 200,000 IT professional located in the Midwest.
  • We utilize a large partner network to increase exposure.
  • We offer unparalleled referral bonuses to our consultants.
  • The best talent finds us: Top rates, outstanding support, excellent project teams.
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Value Add

  • Flexibility: Our customized staffing model can be easily adapted to partner with existing client resources or other specialty vendors: Tool experts, offshore partners, etc.
  • One point billing: Our low mark up makes partnering with K&D attractive to other vendors. We manage the relationships, contracts, and budgets and send one invoice to the customer.
  • Regularly scheduled project status meetings with executives.
  • Project reporting and documentation.
  • Experienced Account Managers on site to complete contracts and Statements of Work.
  • On site Staffing Manager, for projects that utilize over 15 of our consultants, who is responsible for project staffing
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Quality Assurance Plan

Critical Success Factors to Insure Quality on a Project

K&D' experience in implementing projects has shown that there are certain Critical Success Factors which represent clear goals that must be achieved by the client in order for the project to be deemed successful. K&D asks the Clients to consider these carefully in the planning and execution of a project:

  • An important success factors is to have access to dedicated Executive Sponsors to provide active and visible support for the project.
  • Another critical important success factor is to have a phased delivery approach to the project in which the first phase stays as close as possible to the existing K&D plan. Subsequent phases will examine how company processes are impacted and therefore how the core K&D patterns should be customized.
  • High-level overview of the current work plan and the integration into those work plans are critical to success.

The following Critical Success Factors are also important and should not be neglected (they are not ranked in order of importance):

  • Timely review and sign-off of all deliverables.
  • Adherence to a strict change control process is imperative to maintain focus on the project scope and planned deliverables.
  • Empowerment of the Project Manager or Project Management Team to make rapid, appropriate decisions related to project scope and assigned tasks.

Adequate access to Subject Matter Experts and technical experts from both the business units involved and from the client information technology organization for consultation as necessary throughout the project lifecycle. The success of a project is dependent upon the Client and K&D staff working closely together. Therefore, the following assumptions have been made:

  • Client will provide the necessary support staff during the entire life of the project to enable complete and accurate planning and support for the project.
  • Full access to the necessary environments.
  • Daily access to current development team.
  • Daily access to system owners/development teams for interfacing systems.
  • Client will take primary responsibility for managing the project.
  • The Client Executive Sponsor will be available when needed.
  • Subject matter experts will be available when needed.
  • Client will provide suitable working space for K&D staff at a facility of their choice, including adequate environmental controls, lighting, telephones, and network access including access to the Web via the Intranet.
  • K&D will employ our Framework Methodology.
  • K&D will have onsite desktop hardware provided by Client with native logins to all development environments transformation methodology.
  • Client will participate in good faith in a mutually agreed upon change control procedure including a Change Control Board with representation from Client, K&D, and any other third parties deemed necessary to administer and manage project change requests. All project change requests must be submitted and processed through the change control procedure and executed by a representative of both parties before being undertaken by the project team.
  • Client understands that any changes approved via the delegated Change Control Board can impact project costs and time frames. As such, Client will work in conjunction with K&D Professional Services to effectively manage scope and functionality in order to meet the business objectives.
  • Deliverables created by the project team must be reviewed and accepted or rejected in writing in a timely manner. In no cases will deliverable acceptance or rejection (disposition) require more than five business days, and in those cases where five business days pass without a response the Client project manager will verify in writing that the deliverable is deemed acceptable.
  • The project plan, resource, and cost estimates are based on very high-level discussions and will be refined at defined re-estimation milestones.
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Risks

Projects can be faced with scheduling constraints; therefore, it is important to:

  • Consider what risk areas pose potential threats to project success
  • Anticipate these issues
  • Develop the means to mitigate those risks

The most common risk area is estimation error, which can be partially mitigated by establishing regular communications, including scheduled meetings between K&D and Client Project Managers and the Steering Committee at pre-determined milestones. This is critical for the early detection of problems and rapid resolution of issues.

The second most common risk area involves the reliance on Client personnel to perform certain roles that may not be part of their regular job functions. In many cases, these assignments may not take priority over the individual's regular duties, regardless of the high level of motivation involved. This frequently results in schedule compression and extremely demanding, extended days of intense work requirements. These environments become increasingly ineffective and prone to errors.

The mitigation of these risks can involve additional K&D resources where contributions can be made as appropriate without compromising the integrity of client responsibilities.

It is recommended that during the detailed review of the project work plan, risk mitigation plans be examined for each area that Client considers essential to support. A detailed cost estimate will be provided for each area to be supported at the time of the detailed review to allow Client management to determine which items should be added to the project scope.