I help my clients solve problems that they don't have the time, inclination, or specialized skills to solve by themselves. I firmly believe that consulting is a collaborative process, and engage my clients in every step, since my clients are the experts in their businesses. My clients provide the necessary background information to define the business problem, and evaluate alternative recommendations, since they have a better idea of what can be implemented successfully in their companies. "I have worked with Bruce for over two years and have found him to be a good partner in several key areas of managing the business of my department. First and foremost, Bruce has a well founded approach to understanding the business objectives involved in our projects which leads to a more practical and applicable solution in solving our business problems. Secondly, Bruce excels at developing relationships across several layers of our company which enables us to not only get buy in toward our objectives, but helps develops other resources for us to an integrate toward a more efficient way of doing business. Lastly, Bruce has terrific depth in his analytical skill set bringing both statistical and data management experience to our group." Cheryl Van Alstine Wells Fargo Bank Business problem definition Have you ever hired a consultant who came up with a brilliant solution to the wrong problem? Or did wonderful research with no practical business application? Or used your company as a laboratory for his science projects? I don't provide any of those services. I work with my clients to understand the business problems they face, so that our efforts are directed toward identifying and evaluating practical solutions to the right problems. Results-oriented research Many business problems can be solved by adapting existing techniques. New methods are constantly being developed by academic researchers and published in professional journals. Business practitioners share their successes in trade publications and at conferences. I help my clients by locating research results that can be tailored to help solve their business problems. Specific services I Offer Customer segmentation This subject is loaded with buzz words and jargon: database marketing, data based marketing, data marts, data warehouses, marketing information systems, marketing decision support systems, targeting, segmentation, profiling. The point of all of this is to use existing customer information to help answer the main marketing question--what marketing mix will appeal to the target market? This breaks down into several detailed questions about customer behavior. Who are the customers? Target market What will customers buy? Product How much will they pay? Price Will customers buy through the internet, telephone, mail, retail store, etc.? Sales channel When will customers buy? Seasonality & life cycle When was the last time a customer bought? Recency How often does a customer order? Frequency How much do customers spend? Monetary Where do the customers live? Spatial Many of these question can be answered by identifying, organizing, and analyzing existing data. Marketing efforts can be focused by grouping customers with similar answers into segments. Data base testing, auditing, and quality control You've probably heard the expression "Garbage in, garbage out." Marketing analysis based on faulty data will reach the wrong conclusions. Relational data bases need to have three types of data integrity--entity, semantic, and referential. Entity integrity: Each piece of data has a unique identifier, so that you can find what you're looking for. Semantic integrity: Data values are valid for the data element. If a data element is a date, it contains valid dates, not something like 9/42/2000, or 13/31/1809. Referential integrity has to do with pulling data together. If the data is arranged in a parent-child hierarchy, every child should have a parent, and parents may be required to have children. I help my clients develop tests for data integrity. I also help them put data editing and quality control procedures in place to maintain data integrity. In addition, I help design data base auditing tests and reports. Data collection and analysis Data bases, warehouses, and marts are often designed to meet the needs of a narrow group of users who perform routine procedures. Answering difficult, unusual questions typically requires collecting data from multiple sources and organizing it for analysis. I help my clients find out what data are available in their organizations, and determine what analyses can be carried out using it that help solve the business problem. I also help develop strategic analysis plans. These can be used to justify modifications to existing data collections systems, or development of new systems, to gather additional data. Business process analysis I help my clients analyze and document the flow of transactions through business processes. The analyses can be oriented towards making sure adequate controls are in place to catch errors and prevent fraud, or toward making the processes more efficient. Evaluation and review Clients sometimes ask me to use my expertise and professional judgment to review work done by another department, or by a vendor, and make an evaluation.
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