Simpson Associates offers a wide variety of services to provide Information Management solutions to customers in both the public and private sectors, having set up, worked on and managed projects and programmes of varying sizes in a wide range of industries. Our Professional Services team are qualified to support your strategy from defining a vision right the way through to the delivery and support of a fully functional application that is incorporated into your business practice. Simpson Associates can offer the following Services:

Project and Programme Definition

Our consultants are qualified and experienced in offering objective and impartial advice in all aspects of defining Projects and Programmes, utilising Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) and PRojects IN a Controlled Environment (PRINCE2) guidelines. Simpson Associates can help you to develop business cases, project and programme briefs and risk registers, among others, can facilitate stakeholder workshops and offer quality checks to ensure that you gain clear direction, secure buy-in and increase the likelihood of a successful project or programme delivery. Simpson Associates can:

• Define your Strategy and Vision;
• Develop Benefit Profiles and Maps;
• Develop Programme Blueprints;
• Enable Project Start Up and Initiation;
• Undertake business requirement analyses;
• Undertake technical requirement analyses.

Project Management

All of our consultants are qualified PRINCE2 Practitioners, experienced in managing projects of varying sizes in a wide range of industries. Simpson Associates can help you to deliver your strategic plan or project objectives using proven approaches, getting involved for the duration of a Work Package or a Stage, or the complete Project Lifecycle from Start Up through to a projects end. Our Project Managers can manage risk and realise benefits, helping to increase efficiency and reduce cost; we can help you to stay focused on Outcomes and retain control. Simpson Associates can:

• Provide a Project Office service;
• Provide dedicated project managers;
• Operate to a PRINCE2 inspired methodology;
• Provide PRINCE2 accredited consultants.

Solutions Architects

Our consultants are qualified and experienced Solutions Architects who can not only define and deliver technical standards, but also ensure that these are understood and adhered to by all members of a project team. Simpson Associates has detailed knowledge of technical design and development tools including Microsoft SQL (MS SQL), Microsoft SharePoint, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), IBM Cognos Data Manager, IBM Cognos Framework Manager and IBM Cognos 8. Our consultants understand hardware, database and network infrastructures, can estimate timescales for infrastructure upgrades and development projects, can work independently or can mentor customers who are members of a development team and can communicate well with experts in all these areas. Simpson Associates can:

• Offer best practice advice;
• Define project standards;
• Define technical standards;
• Create technical specifications;
• Bridge the gap between a business and technology.

Application Development

Our consultants are highly skilled, experienced and vendor accredited and can engage in all aspects of the application development lifecycle, from the installation of a new product software, right the way through to the implementation of a fully formed and user adopted information management solution. Simpson Associates can design and build all key components, including: data marts, data warehouses, On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) capabilities, interactive graphical reports, budgeting, forecasting, planning, consolidation and collaboration solutions. Simpson Associates can also develop bespoke applications to meet your business requirements where an off the shelf application does not exist. Simpson Associates can:

• Undertake product installations;
• Undertake application migrations and upgrades;
• Design and build data warehouses;
• Design and build Business Intelligence solutions;
• Design and build portal, collaboration and workflow solutions;
• Design and build budgeting, forecasting and consolidation applications;
• Design and build bespoke applications (.NET and SQL).

Application Management

A number of our customers have Business Intelligence, Planning and Collaboration applications that they want to have managed on their behalf. We offer services to maintain periodic processes using remote access to their servers. This service ensures that applications that support important business functions continue to serve the needs of the business community in situations where the customer does not have the qualified staff required. Simpson Associates can:

• Manage business applications remotely;
• Manage business applications on-site;
• Provide month/quarter/year-end process support.

Situation Assessments

New customers who already have existing Information Management applications and are interested in our service offerings often find that our Situation Assessment is an ideal introductory vehicle. Our consultants draw on their experience to offer advice on the performance of existing applications, identifying areas for improvement, to increase the efficiency, productivity and impact of your information management solution. Read More

Purchase Ledger Recovery Audits

Statistically, companies in the UK overpay up to 0.1% of annual payments to third party suppliers. Our Purchase Ledger Recovery team perform data audits beginning with a data mining process right the way through to the recovery of overpayments on your behalf. This is a completely secure, low impact and confidential service. Simpson Associates can:

• Undertake duplicate reviews;
• Undertake VAT reviews;
• Undertake debit balance reviews;
• Undertake statement reviews;
• Recover overpayments on your behalf;
• Undertake root cause analyses;
• Document all findings;
• Make recommendations to reduce errors.

For full details and case studies of our Purchase Ledger Recovery service click here.