Transcript WMP Technology Case Competition

Technology Case Competition
Spring 2015
Technology Case Competition
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Hackathon with a business analysis and communication component
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Evolution of the Technology Case Competition
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Started in 2012 at Purdue
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Expanded to both Purdue and Illinois in 2013
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Focus was on wide open requirements to allow for more creativity
Participants had to build a web application that helped employees determine where to go to lunch
Competitions were conducted independently at each school
2014 added DePauw for a total of three schools
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Focus was to create a “hackathon,” not necessarily a consulting competition, with strict technical
requirements
Participants had to build a time tracker web application for a company’s employees to record hours
worked
Focus was on striking a middle ground between enough detail to constrain the competition (similar
to 2012) and enough openness to encourage creative solutions
In 2014, participants had to build a web application to help a company facilitate the campus
recruiting process
Introduced concept of a final round and grand prize in the West Monroe Chicago Office
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Round 1: Competition
On-Campus | Saturday, February 21, 2015 | 11am – 8pm
develop
demo
win
Design and build a custom
web application
Present your web app to a
panel of WMP consultants
Score the highest to
receive UE Boom speakers
• Teams will be given 8 hours to
get their application as
“production-ready” as
possible
• Each team may use whichever
language(s) they are most
comfortable with
• Teams will be judged on:
• Their application’s
production-readiness
• Each member of the topscoring team will receive a
Logitech UE Boom
• Their presentation and
explanation of features
• This team will also move on to
the next round
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Round 2: Presentation
WMP Chicago Office | Friday, March 7, 2014 | Time TBA
visit
present
win
Come check out our office
downtown Chicago
Pitch your app to WMP
Technology Executives
Score the highest to
receive the grand prize
• The winning team from each
school will also receive a trip
to Chicago
• Teams will be judged on
quality of presentation,
including oral presentation
skills
• All 3 teams will be invited to
our office on Friday, March 7
• Dress code will be business
casual
• The team that scores the
highest during this round will
receive the grand prize – a
Mac Mini for each team
member
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Agenda
11:00am
• Registration
• Case introduction
• Lunch provided
11:30am - 7:00pm
• Solution development
• Dinner provided (time TBA)
7:00pm
• Laptops closed
• Team presentations
• Judging
8:00pm
• Deliberation
• Winner announcement
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Judging Guidelines
During the pitch, we will judge your solution using the following guidelines:
Does the team
communicate
effectively/understand
the client’s needs?
Does the
solution solve
the problem?
Does the application
work as intended/is it
functional?
Is the team able to
effectively pitch/sell
their solution?
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Helpful Hints
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Technology
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You aren’t limited to a specific technology, as long as the solution is accessible via a web browser
and is able to read and write data to a database
Assign team members to roles that mimic application layers (e.g. UI, BL, DAL)
Task Management
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Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis
• Plan enough to set a path, then dive in
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Use project management software like Trello to break up tasks
• This way you can easily track tasks that have not yet been started, tasks that are in progress, and tasks
that are completed
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Learn to effectively manage scope creep
• Don’t let thoughts like “wouldn’t it be cool if…” get in the way of building out core functionality so you
can meet the requirements
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
We are hiring!
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We are currently recruiting college graduates for Technology consulting positions!
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Work on a variety of projects to develop solutions for our clients’ needs
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Expand your communication and programming skills
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Be a part of our unique culture that emphasizes
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Trust
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Collaboration
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Independence
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Client Satisfaction
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Philanthropy
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And most of all – your success!
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Internship program
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Our interns do the same work as our fulltime hires
Our interns all work on client projects,
and have client interaction
Our goal is for our interns to transition
their work to the full time hires when
they start in August
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Hit us up!
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We are looking for innovative technology students willing to work side-by-side on real
client engagements with diverse teams
Internship positions are available
For more information, find us on the web
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westmonroepartners.com/en/careers
github.com/westmonroe
facebook.com/westmonroe
@westmonroe
Deyan Dimov
Krystin Stutesman
Consultant
Technology
[email protected]
Consultant
Technology
[email protected]
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
About West Monroe
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ABOUT US: How We Are Organized to Better Serve Clients
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© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Technology at WMP
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Technology Service Offerings
Application
Development
Systems
Integration
Platforms
Building custom web, mobile,
and desktop applications
Linking business applications
Developing CX offerings via
packaged solutions
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
What type of projects do technology
consultants work on?
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WMProject: A cross
platform mobile
solution to allow
consultants to enter
time from a mobile
device
The West Monroe Project website was not created to handle mobile applications and
needed a mobile solution which would be deployed across various platforms.
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SOAP wrapper to handle incoming calls for data write and reads
Xamarin/MVVMCross mobile solution with shared code base supporting Android,
iPad, iPhone, and Windows Phone
West Monroe
Partners
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Consultants are able to easily manage their timesheet from a variety of mobile
devices
Core application code was written one time and extended to each platform with
minimal effort
Minimal ramp up for new employees who are previously familiar with C#
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
ConnectTheGrid: A
software platform for
managing the growing
demand for
distributed generation
(DG) systems
A new rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system is being installed every 4 minutes in the
US. Utilities are not able to keep up with the growth this industry is experiencing.
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Cloud-based, modern web application using AngularJS, HTML5, CSS3, ASP.NET Web
API, Azure SQL Database, and Azure Service Bus
On-premises integration for capturing utility data
Top 25 Investor
Owned Utilities
This product is initially
targeting the leading energy
distribution utilities in states
with high solar PV penetration.
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Utility customers can apply for interconnection electronically
Utilities are able to meet federal regulatory requirements around interconnection
application processing time
Utilities gain better visibility into the penetration of renewable energy sources on
their grid, thus allowing them to maximize the amount of renewable energy
sources that they approve
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Modern web
application
development to
replace legacy
transaction entry
desktop application
The client’s existing manual data entry practices around investment transactions will not
scale with the firm’s growth strategy.
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Responsive, Excel-like web application to replace existing legacy application
Interactive and streamlined user interface using jQuery, AJAX, HTML5, CSS3
True N-tier architecture to decouple business logic from the database (i.e. triggers)
Adams Street
Partners - Leading
Private Equity Fund
of Funds
This client is a leading fund of
funds investment company in
the private equity space with
more than $25 billion in assets
under management.
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Estimated savings of 600 hours per year by line accountants tasked with investment
transaction data entry.
Modern web application reference architecture for future projects at this client
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Custom integration
process for sending
investment data to a
third-party cloud
software provider
The client’s existing solution for posting investment documents for their investors wasn’t
giving them what they wanted so they picked a different vendor and needed help
synchronizing internal investment data up to this new vendor’s software.
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Adams Street
Partners - Leading
Private Equity Fund
of Funds
This client is a leading fund of
funds investment company in
the private equity space with
more than $25 billion in assets
under management.
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Whereas previously all changes were made in internal systems and duplicated in
the document portal, the client wanted to only enter this data once
Complex synchronization ETL solution using Microsoft SQL Server Integration
Services (SSIS) 2012
Custom process management web application using ASP.NET MVC4 and Entity
Framework
Client investment personnel simply make changes to investment structure in
internal systems and run our process which intelligently determines differences and
loads them into the vendor software.
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.
Hit us up!



We are looking for innovative technology students willing to work side-by-side on real
client engagements with diverse teams
Internship positions are available
For more information, find us on the web




westmonroepartners.com/en/careers
github.com/westmonroe
facebook.com/westmonroe
@westmonroe
Deyan Dimov
Krystin Stutesman
Consultant
Technology
[email protected]
Consultant
Technology
[email protected]
© 2014 West Monroe Partners | Reproduction and distribution without West Monroe Partners prior consent is prohibited.