• What is Strategic Technology Consulting?
  
• Strategic Consulting
  
• Hardware & Software Integration
  
• Custom Software Development & Branding
  
• Philosophy
  

Information technology (IT) for mission-critical business functions is the most complex challenge facing executive, financial, and technology management and systems administration today. Embracing emerging technology such as intranets, groupware, and collaborative work-flow environments is paramount in maintaining and improving business efficiency in today's competitive marketplace.

In the past, a corporation's IT infrastructure was enslaved to large, single-source vendors notorious for delivering expensive single-function systems and for using proprietary software tools. According to a 1996 Forrester Research report, "Picking a proprietary solution forces IT to pledge (fidelity) to a single vendor and pray that products stay competitive, fairly priced, and well supported.... IT must swallow upgrades whole, whether or not they need all the new features." Without demanding open standards, adapting to new technologies becomes difficult, costly and lengthy to implement.

As the IT marketplace becomes crowded with emerging technology and new options, defining your company's long-term strategy becomes cloudy. Now more than ever, anticipating new network technology, building system scalability, and utilizing open standards are critical in implementing groupware, intranets and collaborative work-flow environments. To do this, organizations of all sizes must be budget conscious in both the long and the short term. Without the reliance on a single-source vendor, companies must weave together their IT strategy on their own while trying to maintain focus on the complexities and unique needs of their own business.

Most businesses are searching for an organization that has a vast range of specialties without charging the high price of the single-source integrated supplier. Therefore, a company must spend valuable time and take significant risks in identifying individual organizations to fulfill such requirements as: strategic technology consulting, competitive pricing on hardware and software, open-standards integration, and customization of off-the-shelf products to the company's unique needs. In a 1996 report, Forrester Research predicted that single-source proprietary technology should and will soon be replaced by standards-based network services. With these alternative sources, it will force vendors "to continually justify their place in the corporate network. And IT can pick a single vendor's bundle or choose best-of-breed components from a variety of vendors."

The industry agrees that a new comprehensive approach to delivering integrated solutions using open-standards and best-of-breed technology must emerge. Pioneering this model is BPG Inc., international strategic technology consulting and services company. BPG's consulting experts provide an integrated yet a la carte approach which should attract organizations from all industries within all budget requirements. BPG provides a comprehensive approach to strategic technology consulting, competitive pricing on hardware and software, open-standards integration, and customization of off-the-shelf products.

Strategic consulting, design and quality network planning is the first challenge for many organizations to take advantage of new software options, and long-term network and system scalability and still maintain an open standards approach. Most organizations will benefit from the advice of strategic technology consulting firms with true emerging technology specialists, who can identify systems and software with the best-of-breed technology available from all possible manufacturers.

BPG's expertise in the field of strategic and emerging technologies is derived from a long history of working with leading hardware and software manufacturers in the early stages of production development, testing and marketing. They have a varied group of clients which spans just about all major industry groups from Fortune 100s to small and startup companies. Their direct involvement with industry leaders such as Intel, Oracle, Microsoft, Netscape, Hewlett-Packard, Bay Networks, Cisco, 3Com, Alta Vista and others gives them the earliest look at technology available outside the closed development world of Silicon Valley computer manufacturers, sometimes long before even the technology press has an opportunity to review new products.

BPG bridges the system integration gap with over 10 years experience. Through its hardware connections, BPG has certification from the key manufacturers of today such as Sun, Compaq, Microsoft and many others. They have significant experience with software and database vendors such as Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and emerging intranet and groupware vendors such as Lotus, Netscape and Alta Vista. Whether small-scale or large-scale integration project, BPG seems to have the right priorities and muscle to accomplish the task. BPG, with its connections with leading hardware VARs, covers systems such as servers, workstations, desktop, laptop, and new network computers as well as just about all the software that runs on them. With a top-down approach to network development, the team can integrate LAN, WAN, Internet, intranet, and legacy systems. Their network integration includes switches, routers, CSU/DSU, modems and remote access, hubs, network backup, and everything in between. One of their greatest advantages is their experience working with telcos, RBOCs, and a multitude of independent long distance, Internet and private network providers. This allows them to minimize network costs, analyze bandwidth requirements, and build in long-term scalability.

BPG's most compelling feature: customizing, branding and integrating software for a system uniquely designed for the client. In the past, only the big, single-source players were able to customize and brand software for a specific business or industry, but did so using their own proprietary technology. BPG can now deliver similar results using open-standards hardware and software.

Leveraging their past as an award-winning technology-enhanced communication production services and software company, BPG has a host of end-user efficiency and custom software development experience. BPG's integration and production teams have been developing, customizing and deploying proprietary software to provide solutions to challenges they have encountered while producing products for vertical markets such as: technology, financial, insurance, real estate, manufacturing and entertainment industries. BPG's software development division produces the SiteAudit family of software products and services, with a continually evolving line of Internet/intranet productivity and development software products positioned for rapid application development and private label markets. They are industry-recognized for developing communication features that integrate audio, video and multimedia into the client's applications, and most importantly, that tie these emerging technologies into existing databases and legacy data infrastructures.

This unique blend of services with a client-driven perspective seems to be most effective for solving information technology challenges. Over the next few years, this should become the preferred model within the IT industry and companies will follow BPG in consulting and creating alliances in order to take advantage of their strengths. BPG is ahead of the curve as usual, being a recognized leader delivering emerging technology solutions. Its client-driven approach is sure to prove most effective for companies, regardless of size and structure, and, until similar groups emerge within the IT industry, BPG seems to be the wisest choice. Companies who embrace the innovative, client-driven approach usually end up leading their industry, and their clients are the largest benefactors.

© 1999 Broadcast Production Group