How To Use Power BI for KPIs in a Service Enterprise There are many important Key Performance Indicators to consider when running your business. Measuring your sales growth and the profitability of your projects help you continue to scale and expand. But how do you...
Finance and Insurance
Is The IT Department Really “Dead?”
“It’s Time to Get Rid of the IT Department.” That was the title of an opinion piece recently published in the Wall Street Journal. Provocative? Sure. My answer to this is not “yes,” but many of the author’s points are valid. The Same Old IT Department? No, the IT...
Four Steps to Securing Your Company’s Medical Devices
Connected medical devices offer enormous opportunity for manufacturers and consumers alike. They also carry the burden of increased risk due to cybersecurity flaws. Think about the dangers of having your email or bank account hacked. Now consider the damage hacking a...
What Do Late Product Launches REALLY Cost?
Your engineering team’s product launch date just slipped a week. Should you spend $20,000 on an outside engineering service to get the release back on schedule? In these situations, making the right decision quickly requires reliable information and analysis. As more...
How to Account for Complex Risk with Jama in Medical Device Manufacturing
Requirements management isn’t optional in many fields. Medical technology and finance are just two fields where regulatory compliance necessitates requirements management. You and other stakeholders simply must be in total agreement about the requirements of a given...
Security and Compliance – What Your Company Needs to Know Part 1: Whitelisting
Security in the 21st century is a complicated game. The good guys are always playing catch up with the bad guys. Security is particularly important for medtech companies due to their specific compliance needs. Banking and fintech likewise have a high bar for security...
Streamline Business Communication with Google Forms
Have you ever sent out an email with a bunch of important questions and received a reply that began with "my answers are in blue". Have you then found yourself combing through your large email searching for those answers only to discover that your email provider...
Macs in a Corporate IT Environment
Macs running OS X have been around for quite some time, but only recently have they gained enough traction with our customers at SPK to be used as their day to day desktop environment. Historically, IT organizations have been reluctant to embrace this change. This...
Do you Think an Engineering Employee is Really Cheaper Than a Consultant? … Think Again.
Occasionally I’ll get a comment from a potential client who is particularly price sensitive about the rates for our consultants, and the comment usually goes something like: “I can hire a full-time employee who would cost me a lot less than what you are going to...