Application Domains and Functional Expertise

Our emphasis is on the following domains:

• Integration Platforms.  Middleware, software stacks, and web services for integrating applications, structured and unstructured data, and systems.

• Information Access.  Enterprise search and retrieval, portals, and knowledge systems used by IT staff and corporate Information Workers.

• Cluster Computing.  Components and integration required for clustered computing markets, including OS, interconnect, development environments and management tools.

Within these application domains, some of our recent practice areas include: WLAN systems & management (integration platforms), enterprise search and best practices automation (information access) and high performance computing (clustered computing).

Functional Expertise

Since one of our primary goals is to help clients synthesize both strategic and operational information into a unified whole, we focus on the functional areas that are key parts of the strategy/operations interface.  These include:

• Market Validation.  We use both primary and secondary research to validate market size and growth factors.  We examine the critical "triangulation" between analysts, customers and competitors to form a multi-dimensional view of the market space.  This is a core component in our Barrington Convergent Wave™ methodology.

• Business Strategy.  We use synthesize customer needs, market validation and internal strategy to create and refine a business strategy.  As part of the process, we create a robust model of how all factors combine to create both opportunities and constraints.

• ROI Modeling.  Delivering the right customer ROI and having the market knowledge and requirements to back it up are critical for any successful business initiative.  We use customer data, packaging, and channel information to analyze different ROI scenarios as part of a comprehensive ROI analysis.

• Competitors and Alternatives.  Frequently, competition comes in the form of not only direct competitors but from alternative approaches that customers can use.  Our analysis of direct competitors and implicit ones generates essential guidelines for successful positioning and differentiation.

• Customer and Product Requirements.  Customer requirements are synthesized from multiple sources: customer needs, market landscape and corporate goals and objectives.  We generate requirements from implicit information in the data sources.  The output from this activity is designed to be a direct input into product planning and product management.