The biggest client revealed that they were so unhappy that they had decided to move to a competitor's systems despite the cost and difficulty of doing so. The assignment was to work with the senior management of the client to make them happy. Over the course of four months, a comprehensive survey of issues was developed. Projects to repair and upgrade equipment at installations across the country were managed. In a particularly difficult case, hands-on implementation was executed. Strategic plans were developed for several installations. Reports were made weekly to the CEO's team of both companies. As a result, the client was retained, hundreds of thousands of dollars of upgrade equipment was sold and installed and kudos were enjoyed.

My assignment was to implement the infrastructure for an online backup startup company. It was determined that proprietary software was not an option. Requirements were documented and a thorough survey of client/server software alternatives was conducted. Working with the selected software vendor, a general server system design was developed. Numerous vendors were considered and a hardware decision document was developed. Once installed, the system met all technical and marketing criteria and operated flawlessly.

The company developed a relationship with a national distribution company to sell complex computerized capital equipment. Early on it became apparent that, using the materials supplied by the German parent company, the distributor sales force was completely unable to sell. Based on deep experience in graphic arts equipment technical support, a series of presentations were developed covering the technical integration of the product, the special product virtues, customer benefits and evangelistic messages. The turnaround in attitude, activity and sales were dramatic.

Against advice from the development staff, the production division disassembled a production system consisting of dozens of computers, many dozens of disk systems, and many, many other components for reconfiguration and optimization over a long weekend. On Tuesday, disaster was recognized. The assignment was to get the system back into production before printing press deadlines made permanent problems with customers. Comprehensive inventory of status revealed many problems in the reassembly of the system and many misunderstandings about how it worked. The effort was broken into manageable parts and a plan developed to bring the system up section by section rather than all at once. Three days later, the system was rebuilt. Customers were protected from disaster. Kudos were received.

The assignment was to determine if the new product concept was viable and, if so, discover the size of the market, competition, key players and prospects, performance and price requirements, and detailed product specifications. Relationships were sought and developed with key target industry managers. Examination of industry production practices and costs were modeled to provide price point and performance information. Since the product concept had a consumables component, leaders in this industry segment were found and technical feasibility was confirmed. An initial media partner was confirmed.

A survey was made of the competing products and found to have substantial competitive benefits. The client industry was sorted to identify the prospect category. A document was developed to characterize ways to approach them, their trade shows and other communication opportunities, internal decision processes and identities of the earliest prospects. An agreement was developed for an alpha customer. Finally, detailed technical specifications for the product and its integration into existing customer systems was written. The product worked and the company was sold to a competitor.

The assignment was to develop a plan to upgrade a catalog publishing process from reliance on separated word processors, typewriters and people counting words by hand, to rely on emerging computer and networking technologies. A detailed analysis of the incumbent process and its integration with marketing and printing operations was developed and ratified. A comprehensive survey of the accomplishments of R&D laboratories identified several new technologies. A revolutionary system design was conceived that integrated an advanced, micro-processor based typesetting system and a production data management system able to manage text and other production files with a production plan that reduced labor, and, more importantly, time, by a huge fraction. A strategy was developed with the inventors of the equipment. Later, a series of data structures and system modifications were developed to allow direct transmission of page layouts from publisher to printer. This integration was in use until well into the nineties.