John Levy Consulting

You’re About to Launch a Mission-Critical Information Technology (IT) Project…

…With a Budget of at Least $1 Million

John Levy Consulting works with Finance and Operations executives who have P&L responsibility for the business of a company, division or department. You have a limited time to successfully complete a major IT initiative that will seriously impact the future of your business unit.

You Can’t Afford To Make Mistakes With This Project

You’re familiar with IT projects that were problem-plagued money pits ending in failure. You can’t take any chances on having spiraling costs and out of control timelines. You also know that—without the success of this project—your business will lose out to competitors. You’re confident and competent that this is the right way to go, but you’ve got a few areas of uncertainty, especially around technology choices.

Turn IT From a Pain Into a Competitive Advantage

An IT project does not have to be painful and problem-fraught. It can be an exciting, team-driven effort that ends in successfully delivering desired business results. You can have a project where you understand what is going on at all times and remain firmly in control of the budget, timeline, and progress. I assure you that such a project is not only possible, it can be planned and executed in an orderly way.

What Makes For A Successful, Harmonious, Well-Managed IT Project?

What makes me so sure that I can promise you the kind of IT project you’ve always wanted? There are IT management methodologies that solve the biggest problems that have historically been associated with IT initiatives. Here’s a quick summary of why this works.

• Business objectives drive the entire development process. The IT project is conceived to accomplish specific business goals, and those goals are always the priority. Business is consistently involved in the IT process—not just at the beginning and the end.
• The project is not just requirements-based, but is business objectives-based. Requirements written down at the beginning of the project get interpreted as the only thing IT has to consider. When the project is objectives-based, requirements can and do change when they must to accomplish the objective.
• You know and understand what is going on in the project at all times. You establish metrics at the beginning of the project—in the form and language you require. You have project transparency because you can see what is going on, the progress made, and any potential issues. You aren’t left wondering, worrying, and hoping.
• We use Agile methods. The primary benefit of Agile is that your project gets accomplished in short increments. There’s no way for the costs or timelines to spiral out of control. You’re only investing in a definable segment of the project at a time.
• I specialize in team facilitation. My whole career has been in technology. I know and have lived in the trenches of computers and software development. I know what works and what doesn’t work. I understand how to get your team working together and proud of their contributions. And I know how to be the go-between for IT and business.
• I’m that rare IT guy who “gets” business—and business objectives. A lot of my career was “pure technology”, but I’ve also spent many years applying that expertise to achieving business objectives. That’s where the real excitement is for me.
• Together, we figure out how to deal with legacy systems and solve IT departmental issues. You aren’t left to figure out the sticky issues alone. You’ve got a source of IT and management expertise to help you resolve difficult questions.

My Passion Is To See The Promise Of Information Technology Realized

I’ve spent over 30 years immersed in computers and Information Technology. It’s always bothered me to know how much IT has “promised” to benefit business, yet seldom is that promise realized. About half my career has been in computer and software engineering, and the other half applying technology to high-tech and low-tech business.

If you want to be assured of my technical depth, I have a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University and engineering degrees from Cornell and Caltech. I’ve also trained in business mediation skills and in managing managers and professionals.

Where To Next?

Now that you have a general overview of John Levy Consulting, please go on to Who I Work With to explore the kinds of clients and projects we work with.