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About KCI

Professional Services Firm
About KCI


Information Technology (IT)

Today's Information Technology (IT) and Management Information Systems (MIS) environments have to address the management of the entire organization's environment as a collection of interacting automated/manual information systems.  These systems are so critical to the "digital" organization that KCI has a series of courses designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the key elements needed to manage IT or MIS.

Some of these offerings can be packaged into a designed certification program for your organization.

 

Understanding Management Information Systems Role

Description:

Digitizing an enterprise is a core approach to designing effective and efficient solutions to business problems. Related and key idea of thinking for digitizing the enterprise is systems (an integrated set of elements that accomplish defined objectives). A digitized enterprise is not the same as a digital enterprise. The digitized enterprise is one that extensively uses systems and related automation to solve business problems. A digital enterprise is a web-based enterprise. A web based enterprise can also be considered as one that has been completely digitized.

Systems thinking has driven the understanding of business for many years. At the core of systems thinking is understanding how the defined components influence and relate to each other. There is no better example of systems than the structure of a typical business. Adding the feedback idea to systems we get a dynamic and adaptive view of a business, a key need in responding to changes in the environment around the business.

The perspective of management information systems (MIS) has evolved over time. Historically, MIS started with the view that groups of actions and their related enablers (documents, skills, procedures, policies) could be linked together and be semi-automated by computers. Today, MIS encompasses the management of the entire enterprise as a collection of interacting automated/manual information systems.

Duration: 4 days

Information technology is the key enabler that makes the digitized enterprise viable. The growth in both information technology and its use has permeated every part of the globe with access to billions of people. No longer just the purview of large business, information technology is now available off the shelf to all levels of businesses.

KCI provides IT training in 3 major areas, Business Systems, Web Presence and IT Management. This approach provides a core linkage necessary for successful implementation and deployment of information systems.

Whether the need is for IT management or defining and articulating systems, KCI provides a range of education to prepare a staff for most needs. Combinations of courses lead to specific certifications:

Implementation of Cloud-based Systems

Description:

The content of cloud computing (Internet) based delivery system entails multiple facets of information technology. Managing this new environment requires understanding client, client-server, and Internet systems to make good judgments for implementation.  Driving down cost while improving service levels has never been more challenging, or more attainable. As lightening fast, low cost, reliable, scalable and secure wide area network technology has proliferated, so has the ability to leverage world class IT solutions on a subscription basis. Many IT services are now available in the cloud performing better, costing less, and driving competitive advantage. Cloud computing is playing a significant role in every IT leader’s arsenal.

The focus of this course is on the role cloud computing can play in an overall IT strategy to lower costs, reduce risk and enable competitive advantage. IT must be aware of the value cloud computing can play in their overall IT systems delivery strategy. Understanding the options, risks, benefits and opportunities will be critical in developing a strategy that is right for your organization.

The content of cloud computing (Internet) based delivery system entails multiple facets of information technology. Managing this new environment requires understanding client, client-server, and Internet systems to make good judgments for implementation. The material will deal with the following topics:

  • What is Cloud Computing - the Fundamentals
  • Business Value of Cloud Computing
  • Computing in the Cloud
  • Developing a Cloud Computing Strategy
  • Traditional vs. The Cloud
  • The technical foundation of Cloud Computing
  • Managing Data
  • Private and Hybrid Clouds
  • Infrastructure as a Service
  • Platform as a Service
  • Using Software as a Service
  • Setting Cloud Standards
  • Managing the Cloud
  • Governing the Cloud
  • Managing desktops and devices in the cloud
  • Service Oriented Architecture in the cloud
  • Managing the cloud environment
  • Starting your journey to the cloud

Cloud computing is rapidly changing the way we do business. This course focuses on the value added by using the variety of ‘Something as a Service’ approach to IT. 

Duration: 4 days

Using IT Change Management

Description:

Change today has taken on many faces. There many changes that are impacting those in management today, such as organizational, technological, economic, social, managerial and many other changes. Information technology is impacted by all of these changes and must deal with them on a daily basis.

Management is much more than just supervising or administering a group of people or projects. It is the focal point of enterprise transformation success and the point where new technology, management techniques, disciplines and tools are expected to achieve results. The ranks of middle managers and corresponding support professionals are being slowly changed and reduced, increasing the load on the remaining managers.

This one-day course identifies the drivers of change the manager must deal with, how they impact the IT function and what managers can do about them. The structure of the course revolves around lectures key skill-building exercises. The interchange of ideas among attendees provides a rich source for people to compare their experiences and company change management policies. This course is also useful to those who are about to enter the management ranks or are interested in understanding how to deal with change in their companies.

Who should attend: New Managers, Existing Managers updating their skills, Professionals, Business Analysts and Business Architects.

Duration: 3 days

Maximizing Web Results through E-Business

Description:

Your web site is so much more than marketing and selling. It is the image of your business to the world, all the relationships you have, all the stakeholders, new relationships and new partners and finally the relationship you might have with regulatory agencies.

Web optimization covers a number of emerging management disciplines dealing with making the website a viable and integral part of the business. It is the core of becoming an e-business as well as maintaining your current structure.

Making the website a part of increasing the value of the enterprise involves several web optimization aspects. Web optimization is the core discipline that allows you to take advantage of all the facilities available.

Duration: 3 days

Leveraging your Web Presence

Description:

Making the website a part of increasing the value of the enterprise involves several web optimization aspect including searching, taxonomy, content and knowledge management, external facing relationships, e-flows, internal facing services, web analytics and customer centric enterprise interests and strategies. The focus in this course is on understanding how to pull together all the basic components of truly leveraging the web-oriented component of your business.

Duration: 3 days

Being a Flexible Strategic IT Manager

Description:

Managing IT today has never been more interesting or full of challenges. On one extreme IT is viewed as a commodity, on the other as a strategic weapon. Reality may be anywhere on the spectrum.

New technologies and electronic services impact IT performance and perceptions. Service architectures, cloud computing, electronic services, content management and many current approaches change the computing paradigm. Coupled with this is the increasing scrutiny of IT, its ability to move with business changes and the risk associated with IT performance.

Performance of an enterprise revolves around the management approach, the definition of the business and a basic understanding how IT contributes and fits into the overall picture. IT is involved whether the performance interest is operational, strategic, financial or providing data to partners and customers. Strategic IT panning is crucial to making the alignment connection with the business. Assessing that impact assures IT meets its goals.

The focus of this course is on the emerging, changing and evolving relationship of IT with the business. With many new options available to businesses today such as outsourcing, off-shoring, partnering and other IT business models, a great deal of flexibility and adaptation in making effective use of IT is needed. Topics in IT management, governance and risk are covered as well as emerging development approaches to delivering solutions to the business. In this course, you will learn the following:

  • Explain the role of IT with respect to the rest of the organization.
  • Describe the difference between an IT architecture and a business architecture.
  • Identify the risk and exposure of IT to technology and to business change.
  • Prepare an IT technology forecast covering 5 to 10 years estimated changes and explain it to management.
  • Describe the implications of cloud computing and electronic services to the performance of the organization and the impact on IT.
  • Determine what should go on an IT dashboard that best describes IT performance within context of the organization.
  • Explain the use of social software in business and the value creation opportunity along with risk.
  • Define the value proposition for customers related to improved IT performance.

Duration: 4 days

To learn more, get a icon Strategic IT Manager course brochure.

Creating a Business-Driven Strategic IT Planning Process

Description:

The role of IT has become pervasive and critical to improved delivery of goods and services to customers. With today’s economic turmoil, there is considerable interest in leveraging the role of IT in the management and success of the enterprise. With technology available to everyone today effective and efficient use is more important than just having some technology in place or trying to achieve a competitive advantage just by having the latest technology.

Because the enterprise must adapt to an ever changing environment, alignment of IT is always an issue. How you use information technology has become as important as what technology you have. Old uses like old technology will not enable your enterprise to achieve excellence.

IT is squeezed between two strong forces of change. The IT function is subject to pressure from new technology as well as business volatility. These pressures demand better information technology management and planning. Changing technology and increased uses of information and related delivery systems means alignment becomes more critical to success of the business.

Duration: 4 days

To learn more, get a icon Business-Driven Strategic IT Planning course brochure.

Using Metadata Management to leverage Business

Description:

For many years enterprises have been organizing and accumulating data and content about its operations, customers, competitors and suppliers. Today we hear a lot about the inability to get to that data, navigate web sites, drill down in business intelligence systems or organize enterprise performance data. At the same time we hear about tools that make it simple. Metadata is a term heard frequently in the discussions about access to the data and content. Most of the time the discussion is around application integration or business intelligence systems. Regardless of the focus, this important topic is not well understood. Since it is not well understood, the impacts of not dealing with metadata issues are not clear.

This course is intended for people who want to put the ideas and concepts of metadata into effective use in their enterprise. The focus is on the discovery, organization and structure of both technical metadata and business metadata. Concepts of reconciling the technical and business view, including knowledge and the new technical areas of objects and portal navigation are covered. Further, the methods and methodologies needed to make these ideas definitive are discussed in some detail. Concepts of knowledge integration are included to provide long-range opportunity to link the different types of metadata found in an enterprise.

Duration: 4 days

Levering your Web Presence

Description:

The web using xhtml is one of the key methods used to improving business performance today. It is the basis of enterprise transformation, integration within the enterprise and delivery of content across enterprises. It is also the foundation of e-commerce and enterprise information delivery. A key result of learning xml and xhtml is how it naturally fits into business processes. Xhtml helps convert an enterprise into one that is less expensive and easier to restructure due to the availably of its content.

Duration: 4 days

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