Automation of your business' or non-profit organization's operating systems will give you both productivity gains and hair losses. This is especially true when you're growing, because the system that worked just fine last year is incredibly slow or exploding on a regular basis now.

When you add a Web presence to the mix, it can get even more complex. Of course, you could leave your Web site isolated from internal systems, but then you'd be missing what is still the Web's greatest gift - higher productivity with lower costs.

Whether it's expanding an outgrown system or installing a new one, there are four steps:

Systems Analysis

As the saying goes, "The first step in curing a problem is admitting you have one." So...the first stage of analysis is addressing denial. Overwhelmed managers sometimes resist taking on a systems problem by simply denying it's a problem. "It'll take care of itself. It worked OK up till now."

Of course, it won't take care of itself. 

But addressing the problem is not as complicated as it might seem. It's a rather straightforward matter of projecting the growth curve for whatever processes the troubled system handles, then determining what it will take to accommodate that growth. 

Here are some of the systems Content and Design consultants can help you with:

• Web systems
• Networking
  • Intranets
  • Extranets
  • VPNs
• Database management
• Telephony
• Fulfillment/shipping
• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Member relationship management (MRM)
• Subscription management
• Order processing

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Options Analysis

Once we've determined a system's problem, we first analyze whether it can be repaired. Some times a simple redesign of how the system is being used can sufficiently reduce strain to revive it for a while.

If a system replacement or upgrade is necessary to solve the problem, we analyze available solutions, using a cost/benefit/time method for selecting the best options. 

Depending on the system in question, solutions may include: 

• New equipment 

• New software 

• New personnel 

• Outsourcing 

• Web-based replacement 

• Any combination of the above.

We at Content and Design have been through the "Systems Wars." While building a business from $3 million to nearly $30 million in one year, and being selected to the prestigious INC 500 list three times in four years, we encountered nearly every possible systems failure. We can help you avoid or overcome any problem you're facing, because we've likely faced and overcome it ourselves at one time or another.

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Solutions Proposal

It wouldn't do much good for us to identify and analyze a systems problem for you, if we didn't tell you what we found...and how we believe it can be rectified.

There's nothing mysterious about this. Our proposal will include:

• Clear problem identification
• The cost of doing nothing
• Our recommended solution
• Other options

All proposals include estimated costs, timeline, and expected result. You'll be able to make a sound business decision, using facts.

At Content and Design we don't propose solutions just to give ourselves work. This is a referral and reference business. If we take advantage of one client, that's the beginning of the end.

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Solutions Execution

Depending on the complexity of the solution, we can either assist your people in implementing it, or we can do it for you. Content and Design is networked with highly experienced Web, computer, and business consultants, so we can always bring the right knowledge and skill set to bear on your systems problem.