Systems and Technology Management
IT Strategy
Business is about process and execution that is enabled by technology. To sustain competitive advantage, organizations need to transform into enterprises that effectively and simultaneously collaborate with partners, suppliers, customers, and employees. Therefore, development of a business growth plan and IT architecture that will enable on-demand access to the business processes, supporting data, and real-time information is essential to ongoing value creation.
Accume Partners’ IT Strategy offering provides clients with a business technology approach that enables alignment of information technology with business goals and needs to support the future of your business. We leverage our expertise in a broad range of technology environments to bring best practices and innovative recommendations for maximizing your IT resources today, while creating the building blocks that will deliver value into the future.
Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture provides the framework that reflects the vision, principles, parameters, and standards that drive development efforts in a common direction. Accume Partners connects with organizations like yours to help develop and implement the standards and approaches for building, buying, or integrating solutions across your enterprise. This allows for inter-operability with new and existing systems, custom and package systems to develop an architecture within which you can operate most effectively and efficiently to meet today’s needs and tomorrow’s goals.
Implementation/Conversion
Replacing legacy systems and processes with newer, more sophisticated applications is part of scaling your business and making it more efficient. Technology vendors provide assurances and project management teams who have the best of intentions; but you need an objective assessment to ensure that your company’s technology transition will go smoothly, without loss of data, damage to systems, or delay to critical processes. You need to be certain that the desired end will be achieved.
Accume Partners pre-implementation review team will conduct the technical due diligence of walking through your current systems, investigating the proposed new technology, and assessing your transition plan to provide an objective assessment pointing out potential pitfalls and advising you on how best to mitigate potential issues. We also monitor progress against project plans and milestones and independently validate the conversion of data and system testing performed by your implementation team.
If you have already completed implementation of a new system or application, we can conduct a thorough post-implementation review to ensure that your technical operations are providing the anticipated benefits and are running smoothly. If not, we will investigate the sources of any system glitches, and provide you with a technical diagnosis and recommendations for remediation.
IT and Network Security/Penetration Testing
Today’s evolving and increasingly sophisticated technologies have increased risks such as cyber-vandalism, intellectual piracy and hacking. Protecting your systems and data requires rigorous testing of security features.
Accume Partners’ highly experienced information security experts have the focused expertise to effectively identify and evaluate vulnerabilities in your daily operations. Our security review identifies inefficient controls, sensitive resources and databases, and vulnerabilities in your internal and external networks. We then deploy a comprehensive methodology that is customized to the specific needs and infrastructure of your organization. After conducting your information security assessment, we will summarize our findings and provide you with recommendations for closing security loopholes and vulnerabilities. Commensurate with this, we will transfer our knowledge of best practices to professionals in your organization so your staff quickly becomes knowledgeable and productive with new security solutions, policies and procedures.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
When disaster strikes, you need to be back online in days or hours, not weeks or months. While brick-and-mortar business takes time to rebuild, your company’s data, network, and infrastructure must be protected and flexible enough to return to “business as usual” in the shortest time possible following an unexpected event.
Accume Partners can provide you with assurance that your disaster recovery and business continuity plans protect staff and critical data, mitigate damages to network infrastructure, back up your corporate intelligence, and secure intellectual property and proprietary information so that your business’ assets are protected and quickly operational. In addition, we will help you evaluate all affordable options – like operating from a secondary location, maintaining virtual operations, or relocating your operation –knowing that your data and intellectual assets are ready and available whenever and wherever you need them.
IT Audit
Accume Partner’s Information Technology (IT) auditing staff has the breadth and depth of experience in network and application systems to deliver timely audit services with results that meet your management’s requirements. Our auditors work with your IT team and management to ensure your company’s information is processed accurately, securely, and timely. In instances where weaknesses are identified, Accume Partners' auditors will, likewise, team with your management to recommend effective solutions.
Our IT audit assistance services include:
- Complete Internal Audit Function reporting directly to the Audit Committee
- Application Controls Review
- Network Security Controls Review
- Application Pre-/Post-implementation Review
- Temporary Staff Supplement
PCI DSS Compliance
Accume Partners’ certified IT auditing and security staff and proven assessment process can help your company navigate the process of documenting and testing the security controls that surround the processing of credit and payment card transactions. We understand the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) – a multifaceted security standard that includes requirements for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design, and other critical protective measures. Using our proven risk assessment methodology, we will work with both your management and your IT staff to establish a roadmap to compliance.
Our PCI DSS compliance services include:
- External security scans - As an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV), we perform vulnerability scans and produce compliance reports in accordance with the Technical and Operational Requirements for PCI ASV.
- Self-assessment Advisory Services – We work with management, IT and business owners to determine scope, timing, and manpower, and to manage execution of your program. We will perform a gap analysis to identify the current posture of the organization with respect to the control requirements mandated under PCI DSS, identify all areas that credit card data reside, develop control/testing matrices, and to highlight areas that may require improvement based on industry leading best practices.
- Testing of Security Controls – We will test the security controls to assure that they are functioning as intended, and recommend specific changes in areas where the existing environment is out of compliance.
- Remediation Advisory Services - We will lead remediation efforts to systems and practices that process cardholder data and make recommendations to management for security architecture enhancements where necessary to remediate specific issues identified in the Report on Compliance (ROC).