Summa

As a newbie to the field of IT consulting, I am constantly observing my more seasoned colleagues. In my observation, a characteristic common among “good IT consultants” is that they are technology savvy. They are IT geeks and have a thirst to learn new technologies. They desire to be a part of the next big IT movement and spend their spare time - evenings, weekends, holidays acquainting themselves with new technologies, and creating mini projects to work on and learn.

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Summa is sponsoring two upcoming  ZapThink SOA events.

The first event is a networking and panel discussion of SOA Experts (including Jason Bloomberg, David Linthicum, Summa’s own Jason Armstrong and others.) It is October 1 in Washington DC (Tyson’s Corner).  More details are here:

The second event is in Pittsburgh on October 22nd - focused on SOA and modernization featuring project case studies from CMU ahd Highmark. More detail and registration information are here.

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Instead of giving the obligatory dictionary definition, I’ll just say it like this: a consultant is someone with some wisdom (hopefully), that is asked for advice and guidance. More specifically, companies employ IT consultants to help them solve their business problems with technology. Some consultants are specialists; they have a narrow field of expertise, and are brought in to work with one specific technology. Other consultants (Summa consultants, for example) tend to be generalists; they’ve worked on many different problems at many different companies, using varying technologies as needs dictate.

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Summa is proud of our history of consistently delivering successful outcomes for our customers. Our reputation is built on being a trusted business partner that can be counted to “get it right the first time. “ Our track record of delivering success is illustrated by the fact that 90% of our customers have done repeat business with us. But this level of consistency and achievement does not just happen by itself, so how does Summa do it? There are three main factors that contribute to our strategy for success: having the right people, using the right technology, and utilizing the right methodologies.

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The bar is continually being set higher for customer and user experience in web-based applications.  Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) offer user experience benefits that increase user satisfaction, improve ease of use, increase user productivity and promote faster adoption, while still providing the benefits of Internet-based application platforms.  In addition to the benefits to users, proper use of RIA framework technologies also greatly increases developer productivity.

Join us as we highlight the technology and business benefits of RIA, provide selection comparisons between current RIA frameworks and highlight tips that will help you start or improve your adoption of RIAs.

We will cover:

• Business Drivers and selling points for use of RIA
• Background and comparison of current RIA technologies
• Pros and cons of various open source and proprietary RIA frameworks and components
• Case studies and lessons learned from Summa’s application of RIA technology to mission-critical applications

Date:  February 19, 2009

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 EST

Register:  https://events.webdialogs.com/portal/wipevents/register.php?id=c48c0fbca4&l=en-US

The webinar is intended for:

• Technical Architects and Managers
• Development Managers
• Product Managers
• Line of Business Managers

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Why did we launch this blog?

Throughout our 12+ years of history, Summa’s approach to consulting has delivered high-value results and successful projects to our clients through collaborative and innovative problem solving accompanied by strong grass roots driven software development practices and discipline. These aspects of our approach, along with a deeply and broadly experienced team, strong reputation and company values have been difficult to map into a succinct marketing message (maybe it is because we are not great marketers, are too humble or we just don’t have enough time?)

When we asked around the ranks of Summa consultants for new ideas to improve external visibility to these qualities of Summa, there was a loud and clear consensus on launching a blog as one way to get the message out. In addition to highlighting our capabilities to prospective clients and candidates, a blog offers the team the opportunity to contribute our ideas and solutions directly back to the community of enterprise architects, developers and project managers from which we also have borrowed over the years. Over time we plan to build out a light-weight, low-effort and high-value channel to share more about Summa’s ideas, collective capabilities and experiences.

Welcome to the Summa Blog!

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