PCA initiates every new Client engagement with a Consultation and Evaluation phase.
We want to determine two things: Can we help you? And, is our
fee and schedule estimate compatible with your budget and timing?
Our objective is to
establish confidence on both sides that the Project is feasible from technical,
business and financial perspectives, and build a good working rapport with you as a prospective PCA Client.
Our Business
Application Consultants will work with you one-on-one to develop a clear
picture of each and every concern you are currently facing with your business application.
Whether you need to fix or "upsize" an existing application that you are having problems with,
or you need to design and build a new custom business application from scratch —
PCA experts will help you determine the best,
most cost-effective approach to meeting your strategic and operational objectives.
Once we gain a solid understanding of your operational needs, and determine an approach that is most compatible with your business needs and priorities, several additional factors can influence PCA estimates:
- Functional, usability, reporting and other gaps that may exist between your current application and, through a series of discussions, what we understand you actually need
- PCA experience with businesses in the same industry and experience with similar types of applications
- A bottom-up engineering (technical) assessment of your existing business application
If your business and application needs are well-defined and well-scoped, our cost and schedule estimates are more reliable. If we see any unknowns or ambiguities during our evaluation, we will always circle-back with you and attempt to gather additional information. If your application needs require further focus and/or refinement, we will work with you to properly scope and prioritize your needs. Our experts take a disciplined approach to help you get the most value — to properly align your business needs with your budget and schedule constraints. Helping you separate "must-have" features that are essential to meeting your business needs from "nice-to-have" features that tend to impact cost more than operational value is an important part of this effort
PCA provides Clients with estimates vs. fixed-costs to accommodate discovery of new requirements that can surface during a project — changes that are necessary to fully optimize your new application. Sometimes it is not until PCA Prototypes the new solution, with the new capabilities, streamlined functions, improved User Interfaces, etc. — and gather your feedback — that we are able to determine which opportunities afford the biggest pay-back. We will show you new capabilities that are feasible within the context of your needs, and help determine whether there is sufficient business value
If we both determine the Project is feasible and a good fit, at your request PCA
will send you a Project Agreement that identifies your primary business and functional
objectives, cost and schedule estimates, and Project milestones and target dates
within our standard design-build process.