Spirit Consulting - Computer Consulting Firm

Spirit Consulting - Computer Consulting Firm

All Spirit Consulting client relationships are initiated with the creation of a Spirit/Client Portal that is made available to select personnel within Spirit Consulting and members of the client organization. The Spirit/Client Portal defined here, is a shared forum that resides at the Spirit Data Center that allows for a secure method of communications between Spirit Consulting and the client organization using the Internet as the network protocol. The purpose of this Portal is to provide a means of access for select personnel within the client organization, at home or at the office, through the Internet without impacting existing company infrastructure and without the requirement to load additional software on the client machine. The use of the Spirit/Client Portal comes as part of all Spirit Consulting services, independent of whether or not these services are consulting or application development related.

The initial structure of the Spirit/Client Portal is a function of the client organization's interests and is made available within just a couple of days following the initial consultation. The typical Spirit/Client Portal begins with a simple framework that documents the outcome of the initial meetings, the objectives of the engagement, and provides for the opportunity to continue to easily share follow-on dialogue using an access control list that is dictated by the client organization. Enhancements to the Spirit/Client Portal usually provide a forum to conduct project planning, schedule meetings and document meeting minutes, define project requirements, and keep record of ongoing activities and milestones. For application development projects, whether they are developed on internal infrastructure or hosted at the Spirit Data Center, other common enhancements to this portal include the ability to allow pilot users to document/track system design issues and/or to provide recommendations for system changes. The Spirit/Client Portal is commonly further expanded to be used as a roadmap to access other related activities within the client organization, access select company Intranet areas, or other external Web areas that may be of interest to the client organization.

The Spirit/Client Portal is an integral part of all Spirit Consulting engagements. This Portal ultimately evolves to become the central point where all historical information on the relationship is maintained. Designed with a database backend, the Portal provides alternatives for searching and reporting on data in a variety of ways, i.e. by project, system, team member, activity, subject, status, open issue, action date, etc. The capability also exists for users to attach files to documents, regardless of the source software from which they were created. This Spirit/Client Portal positions the client organization to manage the involvement and access of team members and provides them with an immediate way to quickly gain the appropriate knowledge through easy historical access to the details of all activities. Used properly, the Portal becomes an excellent audit trail, team members become less reliant on e-mail as the primary means to discuss and/or track project related issues and there is less reliance on an individual's knowledge should they leave the organization.