Additional Information

	Knowledge Base
	Product Patches
	Resource Kit
	Product Documentation
	Request More Information

Check out the newest product from MKS!

Consulting Services

Building Partnerships

Our Consulting Services organization aims to be your partner in success, by applying our experience to creating your solutions. We offer a full range of professional services for UNIX and Windows interoperability, including planning services, on-site Quick-start training using your applications as examples, and full custom consulting services.

In addition, we have extensive UNIX-to-Windows migration development experience and have performed many comprehensive migrations, as well as provided expertise to assist customers with migrations being performed by in-house project teams.

MKS has demonstrated success in delivery of high-quality results to major systems vendors (OEMs), independent software vendors (ISVs), and corporate and government users. We have extensive experience with all major UNIX and Windows platforms and provide strict security provisions for all client source code and confidential information.

Contact Us

We would be happy to discuss any engagement with you. Please contact your sales representative or Consulting Services directly at:

Standard Service Offerings

• Migration Quick-Start Consulting
• Proof-Of-Concept Consulting
• Migration Planning Consulting
• Migration Quick-Finish Consulting
• Win32 Integration Consulting
• Optimization Consulting
• Ad-hoc Escalation Sizing Support
• MKS Toolkit Customization
• Migration Services
• AlertCentre Customization
• Enterprise ALM Services

Migration Quick-Start Consulting

Quick Starts are typically 1 - 2 week consulting engagements (depending on the deliverables agreed upon and the size of the code base), on a Customer’s site. During the Quick Start, MKS will interview key client personnel, perform a source code base and documentation review and create several project deliverables. Quick-Starts are designed to facilitate:

• Rapid knowledge transfer
• Identification of key migration process steps
• Identification of platform dependencies and potential trouble points
• Recommendations for Win32 integration
• Recommendations for component redesign/re-engineering
• Sizing of the migration

Quick-Starts can produce several deliverables (depending on length of engagement), including:

• Working prototype of application sub-component (proof-of-concept)
• High-level feasibility report/platform requirements document
• Technical presentation of cross-platform issues
• Project plan to complete the migration

Proof-Of-Concept Consulting

Proofs-of-concept are typically 1 - 2 week consulting engagements (depending on the deliverables agreed upon and the size of the code base), on a Customer’s site. During the proof-of-concept, MKS will interview key client personnel, perform a source code base and documentation review and create several project deliverables. Proofs-of-concept are designed to facilitate:

• Rapid knowledge transfer
• Identification of platform dependencies and potential trouble points
• Identification of Win32 integration issues
• Produce a working prototype of application sub-component
• Determine feasibility of migration versus a rewrite.

Proofs-of-concept can produce several deliverables (depending on length of engagement), including:

• Working prototype of application sub-component (proof-of-concept)
• High-level feasibility report/platform requirements document.

Migration Planning Consulting

Migration planning engagements are typically 2 - 4 weeks (depending on the deliverables agreed upon and the size of the code base), and are generally performed both on the Customer’s and MKS’ site. During the migration planning process, MKS will interview key client personnel, perform a source code base and documentation review and create several project deliverables. Migration planning engagements are designed to facilitate:

• Rapid knowledge transfer
• Accelerated project start-up
• Identification of platform dependencies and potential trouble points
• Recommendations for Win32 integration
• Recommendations for component redesign / re-engineering
• Identification of key migration process steps
• Identification of key project phases
• Sizing of the migration, cost benefit analysis.

Migration planning can produce several deliverables (depending on length of engagement), including:

• High-level feasibility report/platform requirements document
• Technical presentation of cross-platform issues
• Project plan to complete the migration
• Test plan to validate migration
• Long-term software evolution plan.

Migration Quick-Finish Consulting

Migration Quick-finishes are typically 1 - 2 week consulting engagements (depending on the deliverables agreed upon and the size of the code base), on a Customer’s site. During the quick finish, MKS will interview key client personnel, and troubleshoot key performance and functionality issues. Quick-finishes are designed to facilitate:

• Rapid knowledge transfer
• Completion of the migration
• Identification/resolution of key migration process issues
• Identification/resolution of platform dependencies and potential trouble points
• Recommendations/implementation of component redesign / re-engineering.

Win32 Integration Consulting

Win32 integration consulting engagements are typically 1 - 2 week consulting engagements (depending on the deliverables agreed upon), on either MKS’ or the Customer’s site. During the consulting engagement, MKS will interview key client personnel, perform a source code base and documentation review and create several project deliverables. Win32 integration consulting engagements are designed to facilitate the creation of well behaved native Win32 applications, and:

• Rapid knowledge transfer
• Identification of platform dependencies and potential trouble points
• Identification of Win32 application interoperability requirements
• Identification of user interface design/re-design requirements
• Identification of software architecture evolution, environmental and ActiveX integration requirements.
• Identification of for application component redesign / re-engineering requirements
• Identification of installation / set-up redesign / re-engineering requirements.

Win32 integration consulting can produce several deliverables (depending on length of engagement), including:

• Detailed integration requirements document
• Implementation of redesigned working code
• Long-term software evolution plan.

Optimization Consulting

Optimization consulting engagements are typically 1 - 2 week consulting engagements (depending on the deliverables agreed upon), on either MKS’ or the Customer’s site. During the consulting engagement, MKS will interview key client personnel and troubleshoot key performance issues. Optimization consulting engagements are designed to facilitate the creation of high-performance native Win32 applications, and:

• Rapid knowledge transfer
• Identification of platform dependencies and potential trouble points
• Identification of user interface design/re-design issues
• Identification of software architecture, environmental and ActiveX integration issues
• Identification of for application component redesign / re-engineering requirements.

Optimization consulting can produce several deliverables (depending on length of engagement), including:

• Detailed performance requirements document
• Implementation of redesigned, optimized working code
• Long-term software evolution plan.

Ad-hoc Escalation Sizing Support

Ad-hoc escalation sizing support relates to change requests and/or priority 3 problem resolutions that are not scheduled within a desired time frame. The sizing effort is designed to estimate the cost of the MKS Toolkit customization effort. These efforts usually range from a few hours to several days of consulting and are performed on MKS’ site. During the consulting engagement, MKS will produce both an estimate of cost and turnaround time for the resolution of the problem and/or change.

MKS Toolkit Customization

Customization service relates to enhancement requests and/or priority 3 problems that are not scheduled within a desired time frame. These services usually are sized first and then negotiated with the Customer both for cost and delivery.

Migration Services (on MKS or Customer site)

Migration engagements are typically anywhere from 2 - 12 months (depending on the deliverables agreed upon and the size of the code base), and are generally performed both on the Customer’s site and at MKS’ labs. During the migration process, MKS will interview key client personnel, perform a source code base and documentation review, produce and execute a migration plan and create appropriate project deliverables to ensure a successful migration. Migration engagements are designed to facilitate:

• Rapid knowledge transfer
• Accelerated project start-up
• Identification of platform dependencies and potential trouble points
• Recommendations for Win32 integration
• Recommendations for component redesign / re-engineering
• Identification of key migration process steps
• Identification of key project phases
• Sizing of the migration, cost benefit analysis
• Implementation of the migration
• Validation of the migration (testing)
• Assistance in application deployment.

Migration engagements produce several deliverables (negotiated depending on length of engagement), including:

• High-level feasibility report / platform requirements document
• Technical presentation of cross-platform issues
• Project and test plans to complete the migration
• Test plan executed against migrated code to validate migration
• Migration-induced defects corrected
• Performance optimizations identified and made
• Migrated software components in version control
• Migrated software packaging components
• Long-term software evolution plan.

MKS generally works very closely with clients to incorporate client expertise and to ensure knowledge transfer and cost minimization.

AlertCentre Customization

The MKS AlertCentre add-on product provides unrivaled flexibility to monitor almost any aspect of your computing infrastructure. This power comes from the ability to customize AlertCentre and its capabilities to your specific department and corporate needs. MKS Consulting Services can help with:

• Identification of potential monitoring opportunities.
• Custom perl, sh, csh and ksh scripting to implement custom AlertCentre monitors.
• Software tool development, to access the Win32 API as required.
• Integration of AlertCentre with existing 3rd party software, thus maximizing your return on investment.
• Knowledge transfer to in-house staff, ensuring future maintainability and minimizing costs.