Perceptis consulting and professional services IT experts partner with your staff to measurably improve your IT department’s performance, ensuring alignment with your institution’s overall business goals. Unlike others in our industry, we are “solution-agnostic” and not tied to advocating solutions that center around a specific tool. Our consultants’ expertise and background are specific to higher education, so we’re able to provide insights based on best practices within our industry. We provide the following consulting services:

• IT Strategic Planning
• IT Governance
• IT Service Management
• IT Services
• IT Cost Rate Analysis
• IT Communications and Marketing
• IT Project Management

IT Strategic Planning. Dwight Eisenhower was credited with saying, “Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.” In order to achieve measurable results, it’s critical to apply this philosophy to technology management. In an industry characterized by rapid innovation and costly upgrades, a strong strategic plan can ensure that your institution remains focused on achieving measurable results that reinforce your business plan. Perceptis can prepare such a plan together with you, and/or implement and manage a plan you may have already in place.

Typically, we develop and manage multi-year plans with annual updates to account for normal changes in the institution’s environment and changing business requirements. Included in the strategic plan will be Perceptis’ recommendations for the best methods for moving forward, and a document that includes:

• Your institution’s IT vision
• Alignment between the IT strategic plan document and institutional goals
• Implementation roadmap and timelines

IT Governance. Effective IT Governance provides a stable foundation of strong processes so that your strategy can be implemented effectively and efficiently.

By partnering with Perceptis, your organization can keep your plans on track by developing and/or installing processes that are consistent with your institution’s culture and management style.

PerceptIS’ approach to IT Governance revolves around four key concepts:

• IT Governance is composed of processes with the inputs, outputs, roles and responsibilities that are inherent in a process definition.
• The role of IT Governance "ensures" as opposed to "executes."
• The goal of IT Governance is defined as an institution-wide goal, not just IT-related.
• Key performance measures, identified as effectiveness and efficiency, together represent business value.

Perceptis consultants use a series of facilitated planning sessions with institutional stakeholders to gather input and information to help form the IT Governance Plan. In collaboration with your team, we will create a written plan that demonstrates the value of IT Governance, includes the IT governance structure and model, as well as a roadmap and timeline for implementation of the plan.

Additionally, Perceptis can help with the facilitation and implementation of the IT Governance Plan.

IT Service Management. Perceptis’ role as a collaboration partner with our clients is to be a source of new approaches, fresh ideas and best practices in IT implementation. We have seen what works and what doesn’t in IT management as it applies SPECIFICALLY to higher education, and we bring that insight and practical experience to you.

IT Service Management ensures that the IT organization provides quality IT services to its customers in the most efficient and cost-effective manner—delivering what customers want, when they want it. Perceptis’ IT Service Management approach revolves around key concepts to achieve its goals:

• People
• Process
• Organization
• Technology

Using these basic concepts as the backbone of IT service, Perceptis consultants can craft a roadmap for driving innovation and accelerating business growth that enables you to sustain high service levels while controlling costs.

IT Services. Your IT department is a key player in your institution’s performance. Whether we’re partnering with you to help supplement your IT staff, or at your request functioning as a permanent staffing provider, Perceptis provides both on-site and remote IT support. With a documented track record of measurably improving IT department performance, backed by our 100% referable customer base, we are a proven resource for leveraging your IT investment through the strategic application and management of technology.

Perceptis works collaboratively with your staff to align performance and operations with your institution’s goals and objectives. As a team, we will work to assess operational performance and identify the right approach to achieve those objectives through a customized service offering that extends from 24x7 help desk to systems integration.

IT Cost Rate Analysis. Every organization is being challenged today with finding new and innovative ways to be more productive, and accomplish more with less. That certainly includes higher education, and IT can play a significant role in finding ways to improve productivity at a lower cost. Perceptis IT experts can guide you with best practice cost management concepts as they apply to your institution.

Perceptis’ Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model provides you with a framework for managing IT costs at both strategic and daily operational levels. Whether we’re targeting direct costs that include hardware, software and labor, or indirect costs that include training and productivity lost during system outages, our methods are proven to deliver measurable results. Perceptis Cost Rate Analysis engagements cover the entire spectrum of IT costs from Direct to Indirect:

• Direct Costs
  • Hardware and Software
  • Management
  • Support
  • Implementation
  • Communication
• Indirect Costs
  • End-User IT Training
  • Downtime due to lost productivity

IT Communications and Marketing. Effective communications systems are often as important as the technology itself for ensuring satisfaction within an institution. Perceptis can devise a communications strategy that helps you build enthusiasm and support for your IT strategies in order to improve adoption and result in greater customer experiences. Perceptis’ communications programs encompass everyone in your institution from administration to faculty to staff to students, including incoming students and alumni. Our customized approaches consider not only what messages and methods will be most effective for your institution, but for that particular audience as well.

IT Project Management. Because we’re experienced in managing hundreds of IT projects for higher education, we understand how to bring IT projects in on time and within budget.

Part of our success relies on following a rigid and proscribed project management and budgeting process, whether you are using Agile, Waterfall, or any other IT management approach or philosophy. Our project management process also provides periodic, detailed status reports and a central repository for all documents.

And, if desired, we will also assist you in creating your own internal project management department and the systems and practices needed to organize it successfully.