Identify and clearly define the obstacle standing in the way of success for your business, and be thorough in peeling back the layers to reveal what the problem truly is. 

Transform the issue at hand into language that is more easily understood by the rest of your team. Make the solution to this problem specific, and functional.

Design the overall approach to the solution with personas and pain points in mind. Determine what technology will be used in terms of capabilities and compatibility with other tools, and how conducive it is to security, scalability, and re-usability.

Minimize resistance to the solution and ensure process efficiency by exploring the strategy behind it. Dig deep and deliver simplicity and foolproof the implementation to accomplish the desired business goal.

Optimize your user interfaces (UI’s) and workflows so that tasks are performed with ease and information can be accessed with minimal effort. Provide users with an experience that will leave them wanting to return for more.

Provide opportunities for business and technology teams to work together in understanding the meaning, inter-workings, dependency, and flow of data across an organization. 

Establish a framework of decision rights, accountabilities, and processes aimed at improving the quality, availability, usability, and security of an organization’s data. 

Measure the quality of your data and remove that which is incomplete, ambiguous, duplicated, outdated, and unreliable. Establish data quality policies and rules, assessment, resolution methods, and ongoing monitoring and reporting. 

Convert scattered data into information your business uses to operate and plan for the future. Support the four V’s:  Volume of data required, Velocity at which the data is generated, Variety of data types and sources the business can work with, and Value – the most important V of all. 

Collect, process, and analyze data to generate insights that help improve the way you do business. Create a robust analytics strategy to identify the best - and most accessible - analytics approach for your business.

Annually assess strengths and opportunities of your organization's security posture with risk assessments, identifying improvements that best address identified gaps.

Develop an information security program that takes into consideration client requirements and regulatory controls/rules such as HIPAA/HISTRUST, CCPA, GDPR, PCI, etc.

Design key system and program recommendations that support risk and compliance as part of driving new business and providing superior service to your clients

Implement a robust framework of policy documentation demonstrating your organization's commitment to security that is measurable and auditable.

Establish standards documentation that complement policy documents and follows best practices in system and program design and implementation.

Migratation of business applications to the cloud should leverage a strategy such as 1) Lift & Shift where existing server-based applications are migrated to a cloud virtual machine, 2) Refactoring where the entire application is re-designed to function natively in the cloud (this approach may require a re-architecture and a re-write), or 3) Partial Refactoring where parts of the application are moved to the cloud. This could be the front-end UI, the API, the database, or file storage.

Evaluate the connectivity needs of your employees and users. Determine if a cloud-only virtual network, a traditional on-premise network, or a hybrid network are required. Identify the need for a direct virtual private network (VPN) and configure firewall rules to protect your assets.

Build a Zero-Trust, default-deny, security approach that requires only authenticated access for all network, data, and application interactions. Establish a user directory service that is cloud-based with on-premise synchronization, if needed. Integrate firewall rules for IP address level security.

Evaluate the cost, performance, and maintenance of public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud approaches. Determine where SaaS (software as a service), PaaS (platform as a service) or IaaS (infrastructure as a service) should fit into your deployment model. Configure DevOps CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) pipelines to speed up deployment cycles, reduce manual errors, and enhance feedback loops.

Evaluate the cost, performance, and maintenance of public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud approaches. Determine where SaaS (software as a service), PaaS (platform as a service) or IaaS (infrastructure as a service) should fit into your deployment model. Configure DevOps CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) pipelines to speed up deployment cycles, reduce manual errors, and enhance feedback loops.Establish ownership from stakeholders, define roles/responsibilities (i.e. RACI), and build a roadmap defining the cloud strategy. Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the metrics associated with a successful implementation. Embrace "your own" agile development strategy.

Discover and asses all internal operational process and systems in order to create a internal plan that would make your firm more operationally efficient.

Design the overall approach to your infrastructure workflows with personas and pain points in mind. Determine what technology will be used in terms of capabilities and compatibility with other tools, and how conducive it is to security, scalability, and re-usability.

Research and analyze all your external and internal data feeds in order to create the most cost effective method of leverage them as well as stream line their use.

Analyze your internal systems and workflows in order to make recommendation on tuning your operational front to back workflows and daily process.

Examine and recommends the appropriate 3rd party solutions and services that best fit your organization.

Automate manual processes, eliminate redundancies, and remove unnecessary steps so that the focus can shift onto tasks that are actually critical

Better integrate financial applications and business intelligence tools in order to enhance Monthly/Quarterly/Annual report and provide executives with real-time insights on the state of the business

Using existing financial models as a baseline, create new enhanced models that allows for more strategic planning and intelligent decisions

Establish tools that enhance interdepartmental and intradepartmental collaboration, which will, in turn, achieve a more effective budget/forecast process, improving accuracy while reducing effort and overhead

Leverage data more often through enhanced tools and ad-hoc analysis to ultimately better understand the business and improve decision making

Invest Apex crafts a strategy that incentivizes users to embrace your change initiative, setting goals and objectives to ensure proper execution.

Formulate a comprehensive plan with precise focus on the timing, audience, channel, and effectiveness of your messaging.

Deliver theoretical and practical reasons behind business change to facilitate learning in your organization. Highlight case studies and working examples to help others adapt to the change.

Prioritize organizational needs in relation to department, function, or customer segment so that adoption of change is executed profitably.

Assess benefits of the change with smetrics that reveal both its positives and negatives, and share these calculated reports with appropriate decision makers on your team. Increase ROI by using these metrics to adjust your approach to the change process.