Shapiro is chief architect at e-business consulting firm DCG, and among his roles takes care of its internal IT systems.
At DCG there are three people who look after its systems on a day-to-day basis. Shapiro said he'd always been involved in the tech side of the business. -I've got bit of a bent towards that side of things--it's always been a part of ensuring we've got the right set up."
-It's always been an inherent part of what I've done as business owner and leader--I've felt that if we couldn't get management information out of the systems we've got in place then there's no point in having the systems," he said.
Shapiro said it had a Windows 2000 multiple domain environment, with three separate VPN links. -VPNs are always an interesting thing to maintain," he admits.
The basic problems you have in Windows 2000 domains are ensuring its group policies are being effected properly, Shapiro said. The company has five Macs on its network as well, and also Solaris machines, so have to make sure they're all communicating properly.
According to Shapiro, because it's running multiple operating systems it has to make sure that it's not replicating files everywhere. He has also recently implemented a Siebel CRM system which is fully integrated, real-time, with its project management system and financial system.
-From a management perspective [it's] ensuring we've got near to real-time management information so we can make business decisions on where projects are at, our client's [projects], where our cashflow is based on the projects," Shapiro said.
-We've got a project management system because we're a services company, we need something to allow us to manage projects properly," Shapiro said. -Projects are our initial source of engagement with clients in terms of specifying the developments."
-We can follow a job from start to finish and know where it's at from a financial perspective and from a resource respective," he said. -We can make quite accurate forecasts on where our cashflow will be and also how many resources we'll need to ensure projects are delivered on time."
Shapiro believes that anything which allows integration to become a lot less of a task benefits the business so that you can get information from multiple systems without running into too many problems.
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