Cogent Company is an IT and management consulting firm that specializes in helping clients solve business problems through technology solutions. The document describes three success stories where Cogent helped clients: 1. An upscale retailer complete a delayed mobile application project on time for important marketing campaigns. Cogent assessed the project, validated priorities, and accelerated completion through additional resources and scope adjustments. 2. A pathology services firm build business intelligence capabilities by integrating multiple lab systems into a data warehouse for unified reporting and analysis. 3. A broker services firm deepen insights for carrier partners by leveraging accumulated data in QlikView to provide pre-aggregated metrics on product performance.

1. W
S Who is Cogent Company?
Our Services
We offer a unique blend of business advice and technology expertise through each of our core service offerings.
Each are designed to solve complex business problems and accomplish meaningful productivity gains.
• Solution Roadmap Development
Strategic Advisory • IT Transformation and Governance
Services • Project and Portfolio Management
• Change Management
• Data Acquisition and Quality
Information • Data Warehousing
Management Services • Business Intelligence
• Advanced Analytics
• Security and Networking
Core Infrastructure • Data Protection and Recovery
Services • IT Management and Security
• Desktop, Device, and Server Management
• User Experience
Custom Development • Software Development
Services • Service Oriented Architectures
• System Integration
Our Partners • Business Process Management and Collaboration
We work closely with our technology • Application Integration
Productivity Services
and industry partners to ensure our • Enterprise Content Management and Search
clients’ solutions reflect the appropriate • Unified Communications
innovation and the expected return.
Cogent Company © 2010

2. About Cogent
Cogent Company (Cogent) is a Dallas-based IT and management consulting firm focused on partnering with
our clients to solve problems and improve productivity. We specialize in planning, deploying, and
integrating multiple technology across a spectrum of industries, including life sciences, communications,
financial services, energy, and consumer package goods.
To find out more on how Cogent
Our team averages over 14 years of consulting and industry experience and communicates our Cogent
thinking through various publications, including trade journals, articles, and books, as well as regular can help your organization, please
industry speaking events. Our ranks include a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), a Microsoft
Virtual Technology Specialist (VTS), and a member of the US QlikView Advisory Board. contact us at:
info@cogentcompany.com
Examples of Cogent Thinking
• Business Reasons for Adopting the Windows Platform - CIO.COM
• How Do I: Use the SharePoint 2010 Managed MetaData Service? – TechNet In Dallas
• What is Cloud Development? – MSDN 5646 Milton Street, Suite 500
• How do I: Create a Gallery of Reusuable Reports Parts? – TechNet
Dallas, TX 75206
• Setting up E-mail Co-Existence Between BPOS and a Local Exchange Server – TechNet
• How do I: Create Compelling Reports? – TechNet 214.341.1004
• Visual Studio Extensions Made Easy(er) – Devx.com In Oklahoma City
6440 Avondale St., Ste. 200
Our Differentiators Oklahoma City, OK 73116
• We work WITH our clients, developing practical strategies and solutions that meet their business needs
405.463.1625
• We drive measurable value quickly – we believe it’s all about “speed to value”
• We make change management and knowledge transfer a centerpiece of every engagement
• We offer a unique combination of discipline and innovation that comes from being dependent on client www.cogentcompany.com
successes
• We understand business value is the primary objective, not the technology itself

3. S Success Story: Manufacturer Uses SharePoint for Internet
Business Challenges The Solution
Our client was utilizing a public facing website to We began the project by working with the graphic design
advertise consumer and commercial product lines, to company to validate design compositions. Our goal was
distribute marketing materials and product to ensure all graphical and visual components would
information, and to direct interested consumers and seamlessly integrate into a SharePoint environment. A
high priority was placed on the User’s ability to create
commercial buyers to authorized dealers. They
and modify content easily, while at the same time
needed an updated design along with an ability to supporting a high standard of visual appeal.
Our client is one of the most- manage content in a simple and straightforward
recognized and respected manner. Once design compositions were completed, Cogent
began the task of translating those design artifacts into
brands in the garage door The old public-facing web site was custom built in- SharePoint artifacts which included master pages, layout
house, and required a sizable amount of Information pages, content types and cascading style sheets (CSS).
industry. They have a Technology (IT) resources to update content and We included Flash integration at this time, allowing users
to interact with product lines through the web
execute design changes. It was the desire of the client
nationwide network of more application.
to remove this burden from the IT department, and
than 450 authorized give business and marketing users the power to After ensuring the right look and feel, we took on the
administer and update site content without IT task of building a custom product selection guide as well
distributors, and are the involvement. as a custom distributor locator tool. The product
selection guide was built as a tool to drive consumers to
leading provider of overhead product lines. The distributor locator tool integrated
Our Approach
with Microsoft’s Bing Mapping service to produce
and garage door systems. We worked closely with our client’s executive
dynamic mapping based on a given distributors location
stakeholders, the Marketing department, IT
and provide detailed information for distributors and
department, and a third-party graphic design firm to their products.
develop a new look and feel for the public facing
website using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 We concluded the project by building a production-ready
platform. SharePoint farm and deploying all content to the new
public-facing SharePoint site.
Productivity & Custom Development Services Cogent Company © 2010

4. Recommended Solution
We recommended Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007’s publishing infrastructure to support our
client’s need to empower the business user as they create content to and publish it to the market via
their web site.
Custom About Cogent Company
UI
Cogent Company is a full service IT and
management consultancy with a proven
track record of partnering with our clients
to solve complex problems and accomplish
meaningful productivity gains.
User SharePoint
Bing We partner closely with our clients to plan
Driven Public Facing Mapping and execute in rapid deployment cycles that
Content
Web Site emphasize “speed to value” and clear
business alignment.
We also work closely with our technology
partners to ensure our clients’ solutions
User reflect the appropriate level of innovation
Tools and the expected return.
To find out more on how Cogent can help
your organization, please contact us at:
The Results
Over the course of this project, Cogent delivered a best in class solution for a public facing web site, info@cogentcompany.com
utilizing the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 platform. The solution satisfied the
requirements to empower business users in the creation and management of their content along 214.341.1004
with the delivery of a visually stunning public site including dynamic mapping.
5646 Milton Street, Suite 500 | Dallas | Texas | 75206

5. S Success Story: Pathology Services Firm Builds BI Capabilities
Business Challenges The Solution
Our client has several disparate Lab Information We began by researching and documenting the needs
Our client is a leading Systems (LIS) serving distinct business units within the that were not being met by existing data systems. We
organization. These systems are not designed to worked closely with departmental subject matter experts
provider of specialized interact with one another, nor do they provide any (SMEs) to understand how data was accessed, prepared
collective reporting and analysis capabilities. As the and used. We rationalized and consolidated existing
pathology services. They volume of operational data continued to grow reports, ultimately defining a set of relevant deliverables.
significantly, so did the effort required to produce
process over 18,000 biopsies
accurate reports and conduct good analysis. At the same time, we examined the architecture and
per week at 4 lab sites across content of all lab information systems. We identified key
The need to integrate these systems into a data connection points between related datasets, leveraging
the country. They provide warehouse became critical. The goals of this initiative these relationships to maintain the integrity of
were to provide a unified view of information and consolidated data.
the highest levels of service
enable cross-system reporting and analysis on a single
to their customers and platform. Using Microsoft SQL Server, we incorporated all of the
lab systems into a single operational data store (ODS).
patients through state-of- Updated nightly using Integration Services, this enabled
Our Approach the derivation of star-schema data marts and a
the-art laboratories, Acting in partnership with IT, we began by analyzing dimensional model in Analysis Services. We successfully
data structure and quality. In parallel, we interviewed
proprietary, advanced delivered a full complement of reports – developed in
consumers of data to identify key reporting and Reporting Services and deployed through SharePoint –
analysis needs. Together, these steps ensured that our
clinical and technology and provided secure ad-hoc data access through Excel.
deliverables were both valuable and achievable. We
solutions, and rigorous continued to engage end-users in all design and testing In addition to achieving all stated goals, this solution
activities, and provided thorough and reliable facilitated significant process automation and audit
quality assurance programs. documentation and knowledge transfer. capabilities.
Information Management Services Cogent Company © 2010

6. S Success Story: Pathology Services Firm Builds BI Roadmap
Business Challenges The Solution
Our client was experiencing considerable growth as We began by conducting interviews to assess and
they added new lines of pathology services and synthesize the range of constraints and opportunities.
Our client is a leading Our findings helped define key business case criteria and
expanded their physical footprint. This positive growth
provider of specialized trajectory was outgrowing internal data management identify key capability gaps. Most importantly, these
discussions enabled us to work with our client to develop
and reporting capabilities and creating a measurable
pathology services. They a short list of solution alternatives.
“analytics deficit.” An equally important, though
unintended effect, was an unrealized opportunity to We then began working through alternative-specific
process over 18,000 biopsies
monetize volumes of rich clinical data in the business cases, applying “knock-out” criteria to expedite
per week at 4 lab sites across marketplace. the process. These business cases included
consideration of the discrete technology components
the country. They provide Our client recognized that an end-to-end Business within each solution alternative, including
Intelligence (BI) solution could effectively address these extract/translate/load (ETL), data warehousing,
the highest levels of service reporting, ad hoc analytics, and portal functionality.
issues, but their vision was incomplete and they needed
Further, they identified high level people and process
to their customers and to select a technology platform and define a strategic requirements to stand up and maintain the solution
plan for execution. going forward. This process identified Microsoft’s BI
patients through state-of- stack as the clear best fit recommendation.
the-art laboratories, Our Approach We concluded this effort by detailing the Microsoft
We worked closely with our client’s executive business case further and building out the BI roadmap
proprietary, advanced across the design, development and deployment
stakeholders to tailor a combined, “lite” version of
continuum. The final case included one time and
clinical and technology Cogent’s proven vendor selection and strategic
ongoing costs for software, hardware and services. The
planning methodologies to increase solution confidence roadmap laid out prioritized phases and associated
solutions, and rigorous and accelerate the project. While being flexible with dependencies and included project management and
the depth of our analysis, we remained committed to a change management activities.
quality assurance programs.
business case-driven recommendation and deployment
plan and relied on our expertise with multiple BI
technologies.
Strategic Planning & Information Management Services Cogent Company © 2010

7. Recommended Solution
We recommended Microsoft’s BI stack which extends from SQL Server and it’s inherent ETL, OLAP
and Reporting functionality through Microsoft Office Sharepoint Services (MOSS) and it’s inherent
analytics and dashboarding tools.
Sources SQL Server SharePoint
About Cogent Company
Static Cogent Company is a full service IT and
LIS ETL C
Reports management consultancy with a proven
track record of partnering with our clients
ODS to solve complex problems and accomplish
S
U P Ad Hoc meaningful productivity gains.
t
Billing ETL O Analytics
a We partner closely with our clients to plan
B R and execute in rapid deployment cycles that
g
T Dashboards emphasize “speed to value” and clear
i
Financials ETL A business alignment.
n Data E
L Content We also work closely with our technology
g Warehouse
Mgmt partners to ensure our clients’ solutions
(DW)
CRM ETL S Forms/ reflect the appropriate level of innovation
and the expected return.
Wkflow
To find out more on how Cogent can help
your organization, please contact us at:
The Results
Over the course of this process, Cogent was able to help solidify the overall BI vision and strengthen info@cogentcompany.com
the overall value proposition for this initiative. We were also able to provide our executive
stakeholders with the requisite decision-making framework and the appropriate business case 214.341.1004
detail for board level presentation.
5646 Milton Street, Suite 500 | Dallas | Texas | 75206

8. S Success Story: Upscale Retailer Goes Mobile
Business Challenges The Solution
After losing key employees midway through a critical We began by examining existing project artifacts to
project, our client experienced severe difficulty in assess and validate both the scope of the remaining
Our client is a renowned work as well as the available manpower to complete the
completing a mobile application that was weeks behind
project on the original schedule. We also met with
upscale retailer offering schedule. Hard deadlines loomed and scheduled
important stakeholders and determined a structured set
national media appearances could not accommodate
unique assortments of of priorities by which our project activities would be
schedule slips. In addition, long planned holiday aligned.
campaigns depended on a successful debut of this
apparel, accessories, jewelry,
mobile application. After determining scope and priorities, we worked with
beauty and decorative home the management, marketing, and creative teams to
expedite the project by adding development manpower
products. They operate a Our Approach as well as eliminating nonessential elements of the
After investing time to examine the project’s current original requirements of the project.
large number of specialty state and to determine the effort required to complete
While our delivery activities were ongoing, we
retail stores world-wide. In the project, we validated our scope and priorities. We repeatedly evaluated the scope and schedule of the
worked closely with our client’s executive stakeholders project to ensure that all activities were moving the
addition to their stores, they to tailor Cogent’s strategic planning methodologies to project to completion and that the established scope and
increase solution confidence and accelerate the priorities were still meeting the needs of the business.
also run a leading direct project. While being flexible with the depth of our
marketing organization that analysis, we remained committed to a business case-
The Results
driven recommendation. We relied on our expertise in
Over the course of this project, Cogent’s project
sells to consumers via their project management and mobile technologies to create
management capabilities and delivery activities
a deployment plan that ensured success. changed the state of the project from one that was
online and printed weeks behind schedule and unworkable to a
successful element of a marketing strategy. The
catalogues.
project was delivered on time while meeting all
original requirements.
Custom Development Services Cogent Company © 2010

9. S Success Story: Broker Services Firm Deepens Insights
Business Challenges The Solution
Over the course of several broker service acquisitions, We worked closely with our client to explain all of the
Our client is the leading
our client accumulated a variety of data resources. ways that QlikView could be leveraged to meet their
provider of broker services They realized that this new data could be leveraged to needs. We decided to use the pre-aggregated metrics
the benefit of their carrier partners by providing them that the customer had created in alignment with their
for employee benefit insight into how their products were performing in key goal of a quick release.
market segments versus the industry as a whole.
brokers. With 175,000 in- Cogent’s initial task was to install and configure the
force groups and strategic Having initiated a data warehousing effort to aggregate QlikView Server. Within days of the beginning of the
the vast volumes of data, our client realized that a engagement, we posted an initial draft of the QlikView
relationships with over 125 Business Intelligence platform would allow them to application that included all of the required metrics and
realize these insights. Budget and resource constraints charts to the QlikView Server.
carriers, they support nearly demanded a fast and high value solution.
Cogent constantly kept the client in the loop during the
2 million employees and
development of the QlikView document, soliciting
their dependents. They Our Approach feedback and providing weekly status on the progress
Our client had already identified QlikView as the BI and timeline of the project
provide the highest level of Reporting tool they would use to present and analyze
the data. QlikView was extremely qualified to meet the As challenges arose, Cogent adapted to each situation to
services and products to needs of the client, and proved to be an excellent provide solutions for the client. When printing from the
their broker partners, and choice. web-client did not produce the desired output, Cogent
went beyond the statement of work to develop custom
enable their carrier partners Furthermore, the client had already identified and QlikView reports that could be printed directly to PDF.
defined their desired metrics and charts that they When the client’s unique charting needs could not be
to capitalize on an otherwise wanted displayed in the reports. They had met with the standard charts, Cogent used built-in
un-tapped market segment. implemented the business logic of the metrics in SQL QlikView buttons and triggers to develop charting
stored procedures, which QlikView would be required solutions that would meet the need.
to call and then process the result sets
Information Management Services Cogent Company © 2010

10. Delivered Solution
Over the course of this engagement, Cogent delivered the following
• Installed and configured the QlikView Server on Windows 2008 R2/IIS 7.5
• Developed and deployed the QlikView report document
• ETL, Configuration and report architecture documentation
• Created and delivered training
About Cogent Company
Cogent Company is a full service IT and
management consultancy with a proven
track record of partnering with our clients
to solve complex problems and accomplish
meaningful productivity gains.
We partner closely with our clients to plan
and execute in rapid deployment cycles that
emphasize “speed to value” and clear
business alignment.
We also work closely with our technology
partners to ensure our clients’ solutions
reflect the appropriate level of innovation
and the expected return.
To find out more on how Cogent can help
your organization, please contact us at:
The Results
Over the course of this process, Cogent was able to help solidify the overall BI vision and strengthen info@cogentcompany.com
the overall value proposition for this initiative. Cogent delivered this project ahead of schedule and
15% under budget. The client was extremely satisfied with our delivery. As far as coming in under 214.341.1004
budget, the client commented, “No one ever comes in under budget like this!”
5646 Milton Street, Suite 500 | Dallas | Texas | 75206

11. S Success Story: Content Delivery Company Goes Virtual
Business Challenges The Solution
Our client was successfully adding more Fortune 500 The solution deployed involved many discrete
companies to their list of clientele. Each new customer components, including blade server technology, Storage
meant a minimum of three additional servers to Area Network and OS virtualization technology. We
Our client is a leading, global manage and they were already at capacity in their data oversaw the installation of the new hardware farm and
center. planned the migration of 87 physical servers onto virtual
content delivery and hosting machines, including the hardware needs of each server
The existing server platforms were aging and offered (CPU, memory and storage.)
company. They provide
no standardization as they had been built over time.
major corporations with Hardware failure was becoming commonplace and We then implemented Microsoft’s Hyper-V to host these
service outages were threatening the SLAs and client servers, along with Microsoft’s System Center Virtual
training content and satisfaction. Machine Manager to control this new farm. This
software solution allowed us to reduce TCO and offer
streaming media with the
Additionally, the server farm required a lot of data better reliability and manageability of our client’s IT
strictest quality and center real estate, power and environmental. The infrastructure.
operating costs were increasing while service was
availability standards in the beginning to trend down. Over the course of several weeks, we then migrated live
. servers to this new virtual environment. Today, our
industry. They manage over Our Approach client is able to rapidly spin up new servers to onboard
130 servers with more than We worked closely with our client’s executive new customers and dynamically adjust hardware
stakeholders to tailor a server virtualization solution resources allocated to each machine to quickly respond
3,000 endpoints around the based upon best of breed systems. We reviewed the to shifting workload changes.
hardware platforms and other systems already in use
world. within their environment. The collaborative approach
ensured that all stakeholders had ownership in the
solution.
Core Infrastructure Services Cogent Company © 2010

12. Recommended Solution
We recommended Microsoft’s Hyper-V Server and System Center stack which includes the Microsoft
Hypervisor, Virtual Machine Manager and Operations Manager.
About Cogent Company
Cogent Company is a full service IT and
management consultancy with a proven
track record of partnering with our clients
to solve complex problems and accomplish
meaningful productivity gains.
We partner closely with our clients to plan
and execute in rapid deployment cycles that
emphasize “speed to value” and clear
business alignment.
We also work closely with our technology
partners to ensure our clients’ solutions
reflect the appropriate level of innovation
and the expected return.
To find out more on how Cogent can help
your organization, please contact us at:
The Results
Over the course of this process, Cogent was able to help solidify the overall virtualization info@cogentcompany.com
vision and strengthen the overall value proposition for this initiative. We were also able to
provide our executive stakeholders appropriate business case detail for SLA analysis and 214.341.1004
customer onboarding and retention activities.
5646 Milton Street, Suite 500 | Dallas | Texas | 75206

13. S Success Story: Specialty Grocer Uses Systems Management
Business Challenges The Solution
Our client was considering a renewal of their Microsoft After consultation with our client’s IT teams to
Enterprise licensing agreement and was unable to determine the broader implementation strategy, we
Our client is the leading, focused on the immediate need of the licensing audit.
accurately audit their desktop, laptop and server counts
We implemented Microsoft System Center Configuration
global natural and organic across store and headquarter locations. The additional
Manager’s Asset Intelligence functionality to gather
pain points of systems management, such as software
grocer. They provide the inventory data on our client’s desktops. We deployed
and patch deployment and reporting, was unaddressed. the desktop client and, once raw inventory data was
United States and the United collected, we created several queries and reports that
Our client recognized that Microsoft System Center highlighted installed (and utilized) software and allowed
Kingdom with the freshest Configuration Manager 2007 R2 (SCCM) could our client to better rationalize and optimize their
effectively address their immediate audit needs and Microsoft licensing investment.
produce and groceries with met their broader system management objectives. The
platform offered flexible deployment options to allow We then implemented the Software Deployment and
the strictest quality Update Management features of the product to desktops
for growth overtime without rebuilding or otherwise
and servers to further reduce TCO and allow for a more
standards in the industry. disturbing their management systems. centralized and rationalized IT management strategy.
They manage over 270 stores In addition to meeting the nearer term requirements,
Our Approach our implementation of Microsoft’s System Center Suite
with more than 54,000 helps position our client to effectively exploit the
We worked closely with our client’s IT management
stakeholders to review and explore Microsoft's System synergies between SCCM and Operations Manager and
employees. The central IT Service Manager to reach an end-to-end solution for
Center suite. While being flexible with the deployment
more comprehensive infrastructure management.
team supports over 5,000 methodology and issuing guidance based on proven
best practices, we developed a path from proof-of-
PCs and laptops and concept to global deployment of SCCM that exceeded
hundreds of servers. our client’s requirements and allowed for enhanced
functionality at no additional cost.
Core Infrastructure Services Cogent Company © 2010

14. Implemented Solution
We implemented Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager which includes hardware and
software inventory, software and patch distribution and operating system deployment.
About Cogent Company
Cogent Company is a full service IT and
management consultancy with a proven
track record of partnering with our clients
to solve complex problems and accomplish
meaningful productivity gains.
We partner closely with our clients to plan
and execute in rapid deployment cycles that
emphasize “speed to value” and clear
business alignment.
We also work closely with our technology
partners to ensure our clients’ solutions
reflect the appropriate level of innovation
and the expected return.
To find out more on how Cogent can help
your organization, please contact us at:
The Results
Over the course of this process, Cogent was able to help solidify the overall systems management info@cogentcompany.com
vision and strengthen the overall value proposition for this initiative. We were also able to provide
our IT management stakeholders with the inventory to renew their licensing and application 214.341.1004
deployment platform to decrease the burden on helpdesk staff.
5646 Milton Street, Suite 500 | Dallas | Texas | 75206