Project Management

Methodology

Our Professional Services approach follows a best practices framework, broken down into six phases:

• Strategy and Planning
• Requirements Analysis
• Design and Development
• Staging and Testing
• Deployment
• Operations, Support and Maintenance

Strategy and Planning

• Vision and strategic plan
• Business case creation and development
• Implementation Planning
• Organizational Planning
• Risk Management Planning

Universal people are great listeners. This important first task helps us understand and learn about the macro and micro organizational hurdles and your desired outcome of the engagement.

With years of experience in developing and delivering high impact plans, we can help you develop and align strategy and objectives reflecting the necessary Return on Investment or Total Cost of Ownership metrics.

Implementation planning includes a work plan with scope, schedule and budget requirements as well as defining the specific resource needs, risks and measurement criteria.

It is important people understand their role and responsibilities during any implementation within the organization. Our organizational planning takes a detailed look at the risks and impact of how any plan will affect internal services, support and on-going operations.

Requirements Analysis

• Business process analysis
• Requirements analysis
• Network Readiness Assessment
• Site Readiness Assessment
• Security Threat Assessment
• Operational Support Analysis

Most organizations are functioning at an acceptable level while looking to make improvements over time. During a business process analysis, Universal looks at the details of how your firm functions today to learn and develop a requirements analysis.

By nature, our services are exhaustive and complete to ensure the readiness of your organization and network.

Through this exposure to your business processes, infrastructure and operational functions, we can deliver a clearly defined requirements document we will use together as a blueprint for the solution design.

Design and Development

Our goal during this stage is to ensure that the solution will:

• Reliably and securely function within an existing IT environment
• Can be maintained, scaled and supported

During the design and development stage we provide ongoing progress reports to your team. Your complete visibility into the development of the solution and how the requirements are to be implemented provides assurance that issues, changes and challenges are tracked and addressed.

An additional, “Proof-of-Concept” component can occur during this stage as an added measure of solution validation and quality assurance.

Staging and Testing

Universal provide staging and testing services enabling customers to work side by side with our staff in the configuration process. This hands-on experience allows clients the flexibility of using our facilities and services in one location and outside of their production network.

During this stage, we provide:

• Training
• Technical Documentation
• Operation Instructions
• Configuration Management
• Scripting
• Warehousing

Deployment

Your new solution comes together as a whole during this phase. Final inventory occurs and logistics management provides a complete deployment plan. Deliverables during this stage include:

• Deployment plan
• Installation and acceptance testing
• Documentation and operational instruction
• End user and administration training

Operations and Maintenance

Universal understands many solutions come together through many providers. From the WAN circuits to servers, storage an appliances, your new solution will exceed your expectations in driving business forward.
When it comes to Day 2 support, Universal is your best, single-source provider. We manage common and complex, day-to-day tasks including:

• Move, Add and Change (MAC) services
• Managed OEM support
• SLA Management
• Multi-vendor support contracts

Universal Remote Monitoring and Management Services

Let Universal provide your network solution the end-to-end service and support needed for:

• Field Maintenance
• Change Management
• Extended Support Services
• Security Administration
• Incident Reporting
• RMA Support
• Third-Party Support Management