At Pitcher Partners, we have a unique blend of accountants with information technology accreditation. With an in-depth understanding of business, we are able to create IT solutions that provide real benefits. That is the fundamental difference between Pitcher Partners and others who tend to offer pre-packaged IT solutions without tailoring the systems for a client's primary business environment.

Our strength lies in understanding and managing the entire process, ensuring that the project remains results driven and focused on achieving the business priorities.

Our IT consultants have diverse expertise in both technology and industry sectors, and can assist you with:

• Business Systems Consulting
• IT Strategy and Planning
• Project and Vendor Management
• Software and Systems Selection
• Systems Review
• Lotus Notes Development
• Business and Technology Outsourcing
• Web development

The following Information Technology services have been identified specifically for our CPN members.

An IT Health Check is a simple way to secure peace of mind and ensure your or your client's IT systems are operating at maximum efficiency. Often, the value of a business' IT system is only recognised when things go wrong.

By conducting an IT Health check review we will help identify:

• Opportunities to increase efficiencies;
• Areas where misaligned IT may jeopardise business objectives;
• Identify fraudulent IT abuse;
• Verify appropriate controls to manage risk/security; and
• Adequacy of disaster control and business continuity procedures.

Selecting the best information technology is not a matter of comparing one vendor with another. It is about finding the right solution for your or your client's needs.

Determining the right solution requires a combination of skills - sound knowledge of accounting and information systems, best practice technology trends, vendor management and value for money. Our IT consultants can assist you and your clients to determine the best solution that meets their business needs, and not the vendors.

A well controlled project will succeed - however poor planning, under estimation of commitment, and informal approach often lead to less than expected results. Pitcher Partners has an enviable reputation for delivering successful projects. We will work closely with you or your client to ensure each project is successful.

Efficient and effective processes and procedures are an integral part of business success. Specifically designed IT Systems can add significant benefit to an organisation by automating and managing workflow and providing reporting on the progress and results of those tasks.

Pitcher Partners has extensive experience and can assist you and your clients by analysing and improving business processes, and then designing, building and implementing an IT workflow solution to meet the businesses requirements.

Pitcher Partners develop innovative solutions, designed for a specific business. We pride ourselves on our ability to push the boundaries of Lotus Notes and extend its capabilities through integration with other software packages.

We have the consultants and development staff to assist with Lotus Notes application, design, development, implementation, enhancement and support.

Pitcher Partners and our legal business partners have an innovative approach to the privacy legislation that combines both legal and technical expertise to provide a business solution that complies with the complexity of this Act.

Specifically, we can provide:

• Privacy Compliance Audits;
• Review of documentation, contracts, systems, marketing material and staff policies/procedures;
• Undertake interviews to determine understanding of compliance within the organisation;
• Develop recommendation/action plans to achieve compliance; and
• Provide a "roadmap" for implementation of recommendations, training and periodic Privacy Reviews.

Pitcher Partners develops tailored websites and web-based systems using Microsoft technologies. Through the skills and experience of our developers we create intuitive and cognitive designs for user interaction.

Managers today face a complex environment - changing technology, limited resources, management demands to meet targets, increasing projects and reducing budgets. Outsourcing certain finance or information technology roles can provide you or your clients with the ability to control operating costs and obtain greater value and efficiencies.

Pitcher Partners offers clients a "co-operative" outsourcing solution - with a range of structures and where we can genuinely share the risks with clients. The outsourcing arrangement is a value adding service that can help achieve measurable progress toward your or your client's business goals.

It is a common myth that planning an IT strategy and aligning to business objectives is just for the large corporations. Not so - every business, including yours and your client's gains enormous benefits by ensuring the "big picture" vision incorporates all areas of expenditure. There are many impacts if a business does not incorporate IT. Pitcher Partners is able to work with you to identify these, such as:

• Business objectives jeopardised through inefficient technology;
• Inability to move quickly in a competitive market;
• IT acquisitions driven and controlled by IT department, not executive management; and
• Ad hoc purchases result in disparate systems - jeopardising data integrity and business information

A common problem for managers is the increased demand to provide leading edge technology and full business support, but within a decreasing IT budget. Pitcher Partners can provide a sensible, practical approach to enable businesses to meet both their organisational and IT needs. Through a combination of systems audit, business process reviews and forward strategies, Pitcher Partners is often capable of reducing IT expenditure and efficiencies.

Business survival is too important to leave to chance. A decade ago, businesses could survive without their information systems for a few days, but today, with such a reliance on technology and the increase in internet trading and ecommerce, every minute of downtime can cost an organisation large amounts of revenue.

Putting in place survival strategies during or immediately after a disaster is not the best policy for continued business success, as this frequently results in inappropriate decisions.

Pitcher Partners can assist in developing practical Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans designed to reduce the organisation's risk of an unexpected disruption to the critical functions for you or your client.