Welcome to Craig & Kumar Management Consulting Inc.
Craig & Kumar Management Consulting Inc. (CKMCI) is a professional consulting firm with a mission to provide leading edge advisory and project management services to public sector clients in Alberta. We are located in Edmonton and our mission is to become a trusted partner to our clients. We value each one of our clients and have won their trust by providing services that are solution oriented and cost effective. Our service offerings include business transformation, change management, process improvement, enterprise/ business/systems architecture and project management. We are a group of highly skilled, knowledgeable and service oriented individuals who believe that the foundations of meaningful consulting engagement are based on a strong client-consultant relationship. New or old, we value our relationship with you and we will go to any length to make you successful – “we look good when you look good.”
The principals at CKMCI have a combined experience of over forty years between them in Alberta’s public sector. We understand the business and technology environments in Government of Alberta very well. We know the complexities and the interconnected nature of many of the issues that you face.
We bring value to you with our ability to bring clarity in problem definition, comprehensiveness in analysis and synthesis, and in finding solutions that are implementable and effective. With our innovative thinking and leading edge methods and tools we get to the root of your problems and simplify it to bring clarity. A complex problem often requires a complex solution and we know how to get to it. We have the ability to see through the complexity. Our solutions are made to work.
We are different. We do not pretend to know your problems better than you do. But we have the tools and methods that help us analyze your problem and develop an understanding with a perspective that is holistic and unique. We analyze your business problems so that all its impacts and dependencies are understood with clarity. Only then do we find solutions that address the real issues. We adopt consultative approaches to our engagement and we create solutions that have the support of all stakeholders and a distinctly better chance to succeed.
We present the depth and expertise of experienced advisors and the responsiveness of a small firm. We are a professional consulting firm and adhere to the highest standards of professional integrity. We place our clients first and believe that you are best served when we keep our professional skills updated, which is why our consultants must complete professional training every year.
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Business Transformation and Change Management
CKMCI is challenging ‘traditional’ thought with our distinctive approach to business transformation and change management. Our hierarchical method differentiates between transformational and transactional change and is more effective than traditional ‘monolithic’ approaches to change management.
But first we should describe the nature of change itself. Change can be transformational or transactional based on what triggers the change and how the organization is impacted. Organizations undertake transformational change in response to threats and opportunities triggered by external environmental factors. These transformations are addressed through changes in organization’s strategy, leadership and culture. Transactional changes are triggered by internal factors such as weaknesses and strengths. These types of changes are required for reasons such as to improve business performance or to align organizational factors with each other or with business strategy. Transactional changes are addressed through changes to structures, processes, management practices and systems. Quite often transactional changes follow transformational changes but not necessarily.
‘Traditional’ consulting approaches have ignored these differences by clubbing all change as strategic and by applying a broad brush approach to all kinds of change.
We believe that successful change management requires a level of thinking that should be strategic but an execution that is operational. Small incremental improvements towards the vision make change more sustainable and more effective. Only when all the stakeholders have adapted to a new way of thinking and new way of doing business does it become real. So if real change happens at the lowest level of the organization how can change management be only strategic? Can a broad brush approach ever create a new picture on the organizational fabric? Can you imagine if Michelangelo had used a broad brush (or may be a roller!) for his frescos of Sistine Chapel? Michelangelo took more than four years to create his masterful work. For all of them he used specialized brushes. He used bold strokes and he created all of these paintings while the plaster was still wet. Our approach to change management is similar. We have the big picture in our vision but we execute one stroke at a time. We manage change from the bottom up and in small but bold strokes. And we do this only after we have created the right conditions for change.
So what are the right conditions for successful change? Our change management methodology is based on fulfilling three conditions for successful change. Firstly, there should be a compelling reason for change such as dissatisfaction with the status quo. These reasons should be commonly understood and agreed throughout the organization. As a change catalyst one needs to create a sense of urgency to change for these reasons. Secondly, there should be a clear vision of the future state. The vision should be well articulated, well communicated and generally agreeable to everyone. The vision should be defined in terms of the future state of all the organizational factors and stakeholders that are affected. If the vision is not well defined then you will never get there. Thirdly, there should be a convincing and achievable first step. The initial milestones in the change process are extremely important for gaining the support and for motivating the stakeholders. So they should be picked carefully and planned meticulously. By focusing on these three fundamental conditions we can achieve sustainable change.
CKMCI is a leading practitioner of capabilities required for business transformation and change management including:
- Business Vision and Strategy
- Business Case / Feasibility Study
- Program / Service Alignment
- Business Process Improvement
- Program Review and Performance Assessment
- IT Enabled Business Transformation
- Change and Transition Management
- Project Management
For more information please contact us at info@ckmci.com
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Enterprise Design and Modeling
Craig & Kumar Management Consulting Inc. are experienced practitioners of a large variety of business modeling and design approaches that support:
- Business Transformation
- Business Strategy and Roadmap Development
- Program and Service Reviews
- Service Delivery and Service Level Reviews
- Organization Design
- Enterprise Knowledge
- Human Resource Management
- Program and Service Budgeting
- Asset Management Improvements
- Financial Management Improvements
- Architectures and Standards
- Strategic Information and IT Planning
CKMCI approaches include:
- Defining a public sector business architecture or business context using the Municipal Reference Model (MRM) or the Governments of Canada Strategic Reference Model (GSRM – CGRM)
- Defining a private sector business architecture or business context using the Private Sector Reference Model (PRIVRM)
- Defining a not-for-profit sector business architecture or business context using the Non-Profit Sector Reference Model (NPRM)
- Defining Business Models using the Business Model Canvas.
- Defining all business strategic and tactical elements using the Business Motiviation Model.
- Defining a Enterprise Policy Charter.
- Defining business processes using industry standard methods and tools.
- Defining and implementing Enterprise Rulebook and Point of Knowledge solutions
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Enterprise & Solution Architecture
Craig & Kumar Management Consultants Inc. has considerable experence in the definition, governance and use of enterprise architecture for dealing with today’s business challenges – including:
- Complexity Challenge
- Change and Agility Challenge
- Assurance and transparency Challenge
- Business and Business Technology Alignment Challenge
- Cost Challenge – Operational, Maintenance, and Development
- Effectiveness Challenge
- Efficiency Challenge
- Enterprise Knowledge Challenge
- Integration Challenge
- Interoperability Challenge
- Reusability Challenge
- Security Challenge
- Time to market Challenge
- Audit Challenge
- Accountability, Responsibility, and Authority Challenge
- Technology and Infrastructure Challenge
- …
CKMCI provides the following enterprise architecture services:
- Enterprise Architecture Program Definition and Implementation
- Enterprise Architecture Mentoring and Education
- Business Architrecture definition (experience with GSRM/CGRM, and MRM)
- Solution and Enterprise Architecture Linkage Strategies
- Application, Data/Information/Knowledge, and Technology Architecture Definition
- Enterprise and Solution Architecture Governance Definition and Implementation
- Enterprise and Solution Architecture Modeling Approaches, Methods, and Tools
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Business Rule Management
CKMCI is a leader in end-to-end business rule capture, analysis, management and decision service implementation that supports public and private sector organizations in dealing with:
- Consistent business decisions and actions
- Capture of business knowledge
- Automation of decisions
- Linking rules to requirements and processes
- Reducing software development and maintenance costs and volume of code
CKMCI Business Rule Management (BRM) Services include:
- Defining and implementing Enterprise Rulebook and Point of Knowledge Solutions
- Business rule awareness and training
- Identifying rule management and decision service implementation oppourtunities and scope
- Identifying business rule sources and rule capture and documentation strategies
- Business rule alignment assessment
- Business rule capture
- Business rule modeling
- Business rule metadata and repository strategies
- Business rule analysis, validation, and testing
- Decision service design, implementation, and deployment
CKMCI has defined a proven method for capture, analysis, and management of business rules. The method is illustrated below:
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21st Century Government
Discover how CKMCI uses business and technology methods, tools, and best practices to enable 21st Century Government.
The presentation below was a result of work done for the Alberta Land Titles Registry at Service Alberta. The presentation was presented at the 2009 International Business Rule Forum.
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Portfolio and Project Management
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Business Technology Solution Development
To deal with todays business and technology challenges and trends a new approach to delivering business value through business technology solution development and deployment is required. Craig & Kumar Management Consulting Inc. has defined this approach as the “Business Centric” approach.
Several complex business and technology challenges make traditional solution development approaches used by large solution development organizations ineffective for todays world. These challenges include:
- Increased pace of business and technology change and the ability of the organization to change
- Increased complexity of business and technology
- Continued lack of connection and alignment of business and technology
- Increased demands and expectations from clients and staff
- Real-time on-demand services
- Funding
- Extreme Legacy environments
- High failure rate of software development initiatives
- High solution operating costs
- Time to deliver
- Poor change management
- Lack of proper business knowledge capture
- Increased partnering and integration of business services, processes, information, and technology
- Large volumes of data, content, information, and knowledge
- New global business model structures
- Transition of management from art to science
- Need for transparency
- Enhanced reporting to support increased regulatory requirements
- Enhanced privacy and security requirements
- Increased auditing and traceability requirements
- Need for real-time business and technology monitoring, event pattern detection, and notification
To address these challenges and trends Craig & Kumar Management Consulting Inc. developed the business centric approach to solution development. The business centric approach to solution development uses methods and technologies focused on business knowledge capture, linkage and use versus traditional software development methods and tools. The key technology components of the business centric approach include:
- Business Architecture
- Business Process Management
- Business Rule Management / Enterprise Rule Book
- Enterprise Decision Management
- Business/Common Event Processing
- Service Oriented Enterprise and Architecture
- Business Activity Monitoring
- Business Intelligence and Reporting
- Enterprise Semantics Management
- Model Driven Development
- Enterprise Knowledge Repository
- Proven business and technology standards
- Rich Interface Experiences
These technologies are interwoven with traditional solution development lifecycle approaches, phases, activities, and deliverables with the combined goals of maximizing business knowledge capture that can generate executable processes and decision services aligned to business services; minimizing software development and source code; encouraging reuse; and providing the basis for business activity monitoring and analysis that will enable continuous business improvement and agility.
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