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Title: Miami-Dade County Is Schooled on Electronic Touch Screen Voting Topic: “Miami-Dade County Is Schooled on Electronic Touch Screen Voting Machines” Situation: David Leahy, Supervisor of Elections for Miami-Dade County, Florida, was instructed to select and implement a new touch screen electronic voting system in time for the 2002 mid-term elections and to ensure that the election debacle of 2000 and the now famous butterfly ballot and hanging chad problems that plagued Florida, would not be repeated. Due to the cultural diversity in South Florida, that includes large populations of both Hispanic and Haitian immigrants, Mr. Leahy selected Election System and Software’s (ES&S) electronic touch screen voting system. ES&S’ system supports a tri-lingual ballot (English, Spanish, and Creole). Miami-Dade County is a large county with 264 polling precincts. To support its electorate on Election Day, Miami-Dade County staffs its precincts with between 2,500 and 3,000 poll workers and employees who oversee the casting of ballots on over 7,200 electronic voting machines. Problem: With only two months until Election Day, Miami-Dade County needed to train an army of poll workers and employees that were to oversee the casting of ballots on the 7,250 electronic voting machines deployed throughout the county. Solution: Miami-Dade County selected 2 firms familiar with ES&S’ Electronic Voting Machines to train its poll workers and employees. One of the firms selected was Next Technology Consulting, Inc. Next Technology was assigned over 1,200 poll workers and staff to train during a 10-day period. To accommodate the large number of individuals to be trained over such as short period, Miami-Dade County supplied a large banquet hall / seminar room at the Port of Miami for Next Technology to use. Next Technology’s Election Specialists determined that the ideal student-teacher ratio for the level of instruction desired by Miami-Dade County would be 1 instructor for every 10 poll workers and staff. This would require that Next Technology supply 12 instructors for the training. To meet the desired instructor count, Next Technology employed the use of an in-house “train-the-trainer” program where Next Technology Election Specialists skilled in ES&S systems instructed other Next Technology consultants in the configuration, use, and troubleshooting of these systems. To validate that the necessary skills were transferred during the “train-the-trainer” sessions, Next Technology developed an intensive ES&S certification program. This certification involved real-time scenario testing of machine and software failures to challenge the user and a battery of tests including written quizzes, True/False exams, and short answer tests. Once Next Technology Election Specialists were satisfied that all instructors were sufficiently trained to conduct the sessions required by Miami-Dade County, the training sessions were scheduled. Two training sessions were held each day. The morning session ran from 8:00 am until 12 noon. The afternoon session ran from 1 pm to 4 pm. The training sessions began with a group session in the morning whereby all poll workers and staff assigned for training that day were instructed: • in the parts of the Electronic Voting Machine, • in the parts of the voting booth, • in how to assemble a voting booth, • in how to use the touch screen voting machine • in the force needed to register a vote; and • in the basics of the software. After the group session, the poll workers and staff were broken out into groups of 10 and assigned a Next Technology instructor. Next Technology instructors provided hands-on in-depth education on: • how to assemble and stage the machines, • how to upload the firmware, • how to connect and charge the battery, • how to clear and test the machines, • how to calibrate the machines, • how to check the time on the machines, and • how to ensure that the public count was set to zero (0) on the machines. In addition, the instructors showed the poll workers and staff: • what the splash screen would look like, • how to verify that the correct ballot was presented with the proper appearance, • how to qualify the personal electronic ballot (PEB), • how to validate the precinct code, and • how to validate the election qualification code (EQC). The poll workers and staff were also shown general troubleshooting and operational issues such as how to connect the public count tape printer, how to unjam the printer, an alternate way to print zero tape, how to resolve a flash card problem, how to open the polls, and how to close the polls. During the lunch break, Next Technology instructors created a variety of hardware and software failures that would present themselves to students on the ES&S systems. After the lunch break, the afternoon session began. This session was a live exercise of the potential failures that a poll workers or staff member might encounter and tested the students understanding and retention of the material covered in the morning session. The students had to successfully diagnose and resolve the failures created by the Next Technology instructors. Cost: Pricing available upon request Result: The poll workers and staff trained by Next Technology Consulting, Inc. were more confident and capable of resolving problems encountered on Election Day. They were able to perform tasks and to diagnose and repair problems that other poll workers and staff that had not been trained by Next Technology could not diagnose and repair. The result was that in precincts staffed with poll workers and staff trained by Next Technology, more electronic voting machines were available, more people were able to vote quickly, and the general feeling of happiness by the electorate was increased. The project was so successful that Next Technology Consulting, Inc. has been secured, on a contractual basis through ES&S, to handle all subsequent training at Miami-Dade County including specialized education on the ES&S iVotronic system to upper management and IT employees of the County.










Title: Success with Sales Force Automation Topic: Wine Distribution - Automated Sales Force Situation: In June 2003 the South Florida branch of a national wine & spirits distributor, was handed a non functional Sales Automation Force system by the California state branch’s IT department. The system needed to be functional by the upcoming holiday season. Problem: In June 2003 the South Florida branch of a national wine & spirits distributor, was handed a non functional Sales Automation Force system by the California state branch’s IT department. The system needed to be functional by the upcoming holiday season. Solution: Based on previous experience working with Next Technology Consulting, the head of the South Florida branch software development team requested the help of Next Technology’s experienced Microsoft certified .net developers in order to reverse engineer, document and further develop the SFA application. Next Technology’s team first concentrated in producing quick results in order to satisfy the business manager’s needs and expectations. After this was achieved the team focused on creating and satisfying all the system requirements and got heavily involved in the on going application’s transformation. The Next Team was responsible for the creation of an innovative user interface and intuitive usage and built a robust file transfer and data synchronization using Microsoft’s .net Remoting technology. At all times the Next Technology team interacted with the resident developers as one team and instructed them when needed creating a culture of collaboration. The client SFA front end system was entirely built using Microsoft’s C# programming language. The back end services where built using C# in most of the cases and they interact with a variety of MS SQL Server databases and the main As/400 system infrastructure. Cost: Pricing available upon request Result: By October of 2003 the company was slowly replacing, on selected states, the old SFA application with the new more robust and flexible SFA system. This process has continued as the application grows and accommodates all the different business needs of each specific state. The system has been a success and has generated a large increase in the order processing efficiency and ease of use. Next Technology Consultants have been working together with the distributor to achieve these goals, including the release on late 2004, of a handheld version of the application.












Title: Credit Card Transaction Reporting / Billing VoIP Topic: “Complying with SEC, GAAP, & Sarbanes-Oxley” Situation: A publicly traded, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida based firm specializing in Internet Telephony (VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol), purchased and implemented an “off-the-shelf” billing software package to handle its day-to-day customer account management and billing. The software package was supposed to handle routine tasks such as customer billing, invoicing, call detail accounting and financial reporting. The software was also supposed to perform the automated billing of customer accounts on a monthly or annual basis depending on the customers’ billing contract cycle. Problem: The “off-the-shelf” billing package purchased was unable to generate accurate credit card transaction reports and the developers of the billing package were unable to fix this and the numerous other bugs identified by the Internet Telephony firm’s accounting department. Since the Internet Telephony firm is a publicly traded company, they had considerable legal and fiscal exposure if their accounting practices did not follow SEC guidelines and GAAP, not to mention, Sarbanes-Oxley. Solution: Next Technology Consulting, Inc. designed and implemented a robust financial transaction reporting system to generate the required credit card transaction reports. The system was designed to handle the fluctuations in design and implementation of the VoIP firm’s product and marketing mix, which at times, was modified several times per month. Fluctuations included price changes, changes in terms and conditions, changes in the product mix, etc. The system imported data from the client’s website, a MS SQL Server 2000 database, and the existing billing system. The report generated contained detailed transaction components that tied back to the corresponding General Ledger accounts. The development platform selected for the reporting system was Microsoft .Net C# (c-sharp). The database utilized was Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Reporting duties were handled by Crystal Reports which seamlessly integrated with the .Net application. Cost: Pricing available upon request Result: By implementing the new credit card transaction reporting system, the client was able to meet the SEC’s stringent financial reporting guidelines and was able to accurately reflect debits and credits against the General Ledger. The functionality of the system was later extended to, among other things, report inventory levels and customer acquisition figures.















Title: Automating Business Processes To Produce A Business Proposal Topic: “A Business Proposal You Can’t Refuse” Situation: An impact resistant glass window manufacturer based in Miami, Florida was having difficulty preparing quotes / proposals for its clients in a timely fashion. Problem: Developing a client proposal for impact windows required the window manufacturer’s employees to be experienced and knowledgeable about the intrinsic details relating to each window’s size limitations and potential configurations. In order to be able to accurately quote an order, an employee had to resort to using manuals containing hundreds of pages of product specifications and complex mathematical equations. Some of these equations required that an employee be proficient in highly advanced mathematical calculations, this resulted in a slow, expensive, and sometimes inaccurate result. The complexity and time required to complete the manual process limited the company’s ability to grow its business. The company was only able to manually process around 15 proposals / orders per week. Solution: Technology consultants reviewed and analyzed the client’s proposal / ordering processes. Following the analysis, the Next Technology team of software developers and designers created an automated wizard-type system that would allow any employee to accurately prepare a proposal for a client or the client to prepare the quote themself (i.e. self-service). The solution was built using Microsoft’s .net technology and secure XML Soap services and distributed to all of the windows manufacturers’ clients. The system provided, among other things, the ability to update a unique client’s pricing information, apply discounts, and enforce special rules via a synchronization server. The system also provided the capability to produce 3 different detailed reports using Crystal Reports. Cost: Pricing available upon request Result: By employing this approach, the clients were able to create and receive accurate quotes and to place orders online. This dramatically reduced the time required to obtain a proposal and improved the accuracy of the proposal. This resulted in improved productivity at the window manufacturer and improved customer satisfaction. As a by-product, the window manufacturer was also no longer required to tie up its most experienced and valuable resources in the quoting and ordering process. In just the first few months following the release of the proposal quoting and ordering system, the window manufacturer had more than quadrupled its business volume from an average 15 proposals / orders per week to an average of 65 proposals / orders a week.

















Title: Special Force's Consulting at its best! Topic: Payment Processing Integration (e-Commerce) Situation: The Eastern States Veterinary Association (ESVA) in partnership with Intelligent Content Corp. (ICC) were developing an e-Learning educational offering for the veterinary community. A commitment had been made by the executives of ICC to the Board of Directors of ESVA that the product would be ready to be announced at the 2004 North American Veterinary Conference in January 2004 and available for sale at the Western Veterinary Conference in February 2004. Problem: Nearing the deadline, ICC’s offshore development team was behind schedule and were estimating that they would not meet the commitment for the product launch timeframe without a substantial reduction in scope that would include the elimination of a key feature of the product launch, the availability to sell and activate e-Learning courses. Solution: The “Special Forces” team at Next Technology Consulting, Inc., was contacted in order to explore the option of developing a payment processing and activation module that could seamlessly integrate into the e-Learning product to make the launch target. The Special Forces team was activated on February 9, 2004 with the start of the Western Veterinary Conference less than 2 weeks away. Leveraging the expertise of Next Technology partner, Hiram Diaz, a temporary solution was devised to integrate Ebay’s hosted PayPal payment processing system into the e-Learning course activation module. This temporary module could be developed in parallel with the ongoing activities of the offshore developer and could later be swapped out when the permanent payment processing module was completed. Cost: Pricing available upon request Result: The product launched on-time at the Western Veterinary Conference with the ability to preview 3 courses at no cost and the ability to purchase the remaining courses using the PayPal integration. The product was demonstrated in a tradeshow environment to over 1,100 veterinary professionals and received accolades not only from those previewing the product but from all members of the Eastern States Veterinary Association’s Board of Directors.



















Title: Success with Sales Force Automation Topic: Wine Distribution - Automated Sales Force Situation: In June 2003 the South Florida branch of a national wine & spirits distributor, was handed a non functional Sales Automation Force system by the California state branch’s IT department. The system needed to be functional by the upcoming holiday season. Problem: In June 2003 the South Florida branch of a national wine & spirits distributor, was handed a non functional Sales Automation Force system by the California state branch’s IT department. The system needed to be functional by the upcoming holiday season. Solution: Based on previous experience working with Next Technology Consulting, the head of the South Florida branch software development team requested the help of Next Technology’s experienced Microsoft certified .net developers in order to reverse engineer, document and further develop the SFA application. Next Technology’s team first concentrated in producing quick results in order to satisfy the business manager’s needs and expectations. After this was achieved the team focused on creating and satisfying all the system requirements and got heavily involved in the on going application’s transformation. The Next Team was responsible for the creation of an innovative user interface and intuitive usage and built a robust file transfer and data synchronization using Microsoft’s .net Remoting technology. At all times the Next Technology team interacted with the resident developers as one team and instructed them when needed creating a culture of collaboration. The client SFA front end system was entirely built using Microsoft’s C# programming language. The back end services where built using C# in most of the cases and they interact with a variety of MS SQL Server databases and the main As/400 system infrastructure. Cost: Pricing available upon request Result: By October of 2003 the company was slowly replacing, on selected states, the old SFA application with the new more robust and flexible SFA system. This process has continued as the application grows and accommodates all the different business needs of each specific state. The system has been a success and has generated a large increase in the order processing efficiency and ease of use. Next Technology Consultants have been working together with the distributor to achieve these goals, including the release on late 2004, of a handheld version of the application.

















Title: Beautiful Music to One Music Importer Topic: Automated Ordering and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Situation: A top importer of music into the United States relied on a manual order entry process for the bulk of its sales because its existing systems could not accommodate large scale, automated electronic ordering. Problem: All orders had to be manually keyed in. Some of these orders were received as emails and others were received as faxes. The music importer was under increasing pressure to adapt to new and more efficient systems by it’s larger clients which included such household names as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble and to streamline the addition of smaller mom and pop retailers. Solution: To deal with the music importer’s smaller accounts, Next Technology Consulting designed and developed a communication / order processing system that would receive and process a simple text file format without any manual intervention and would generate all appropriate reports. The text file format contained the minimum details required for an order. Smaller clients were provided access to private FTP folders where they could drop off their files and pickup acknowledgments, ship reports, etc. A similar system was developed for use by the larger music retailers, but using file standards, dictated by the customer. These standards include electronic data interchange (EDI) and XML. The larger clients also required real time order acknowledgements and reporting. The new automated order processing systems were seamlessly integrated with the music importer’s existing custom software solution without interruption to its daily business, and were built using Microsoft Visual Basic and Microsoft SQL Server. NetSuite
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Next Technology Consulting, Inc. is a Miami software-consulting firm. The firm, currently headquartered in Miami Lakes, Florida, has grown to 15 consultants since it was founded in 1998 and is one of the premier computer-consulting firms in South Florida. The firm is known for its ability to deliver high-quality software solutions that address business problems and a time-sensitive, time horizon. The firm is frequently engaged to recover runaway projects from outsourcing engagements gone awry and to provide development services under tight timelines. Next Technology Consulting, Inc. is the "Special Forces" of consulting - they never leave a fallen company behind. The firm is approved to bid for state of Florida GSA and Miami Dade and Broward County government procurement contracts.

Three partners, Mr. Regino "Reggie" Sanchez, Mr. Francisco "Frank" Fernandez, and Mr. Hiram F. Diaz manage Next Technology Consulting, Inc. The firm is, at its core, a computer programming / web programming house specializing in custom programming applications including enterprise software programming, EDI, e-Learning, and decision support systems that include Hyperion Essbase and Cognos. The firm is a Microsoft Certified Partner, Netsuite partner, and its consultant's are both Microsoft certified and Netsuite certified.

The firm's clients read like the who's who of Florida-based businesses and span a variety of industries including the automotive, cruise line, manufacturing, distribution, fine wine & spirits, food services, e-Learning, voice over IP (VoIP), music, electronic voting, and animal health industries.

The firm's application development services include, but are not limited to, the Microsoft .net framework, asp.net consulting, html programming, visual basic programming, c programming, c# (csharp), and other object oriented programming languages. The firm also has extensive experience in interface development with Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, CD Now, Tower Records, Harry Fox, and the PayPal, Verisign, Cybersource, and Pitney Bowes financial gateways.