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Here are Our Latest Publications

IT Leaders: Walkabouts
The organizations that our IT departments serve have lots of parts, pieces, and most importantly, people. Walkabouts are a good way to stay in touch.

The IT Director: Throttle For Change: How Organizations Should Think About IT
Organizations have IT departments, but they don’t always understand how the IT department can best help. Yes, we keep the computers running. But there can be more than that. Much more.

Ask The IT Director: Cantujust Dilemma
Dear IT Director, People seem to think that IT has an “easy button.” That we can just make simple changes and slap it into production quickly. How can I respond to this nonsense? Frustrated in Fresno Dear Frustrated, I feel your pain on this. As with most jobs, there are details in our work that ...

Ask the IT Director: Upgrades Get Blamed For Everything
Dear IT Director, We upgraded one of our major systems last year. We had some glitches, but overall it went fairly well. Here we are a year later, and people still blame the upgrade when they have problems. Very frustrating! Upgraded in Upton Dear Upgraded, Hahaha! HAHAHA! C’mon, laugh with me. ...

Questions to Ask Regarding Your Company’s Data and Analytics for a More Successful 2022
Another year is quickly coming to a close. Unfortunately, 2021 did not turn out to be the year of “putting the pandemic behind us” that we hoped for. Despite that, we hope you saw this year as a turning point and are starting to see a trend toward better times ahead.

Backups – The Who What Where Why When and How
Who should do backups?

I Love Manufacturing
I have worked at manufacturing companies for most of my career. There were a few university jobs first, but when I got the IT job at 3M, I was hooked. The sheer number of products they made was mind-blowing. I worked in the IT department supporting the engineers that designed the equipment for the ...

IT Leaders: Supporting a Staff Retirement
If you are an IT leader long enough, you will deal with a team member’s retirement. While similar to any person leaving a position, you may get more than two weeks notice, which can be helpful.

Prioritizing IT Work: The Challenges
How can we prioritize effectively in the IT department? We start by understanding that there is not a separate set of priorities for IT. The priorities of the organization are the priorities of IT. We must be able to say that IT is always performing the work that is most important to the ...

Business Processes: Set Up For Success
All organizations use business processes to get work done. Most of these processes, especially in larger organizations, rely on computers and software. IT’s role is to make sure processes, as implemented though technology, change as the organization changes. With increasing dependencies on ...

Improve Your Performance and Profitability Today

SCS uses best-in-class tools to deliver database, reporting and data platform and analytics solutions. We partner with your team to develop custom solutions.

What are the Important Skillsets for a Business Analyst?  
The role of a Business Analyst is not one to be taken lightly. They are the central point of contact for many within the project team, accountable for defining and helping ensure that the right solution is delivered. It is because of this, in my opinion, that the most effective and successful BAs ...

What is a Business Analyst and Why Does My Project Need One?
At the onset of a new project the excitement and enthusiasm for starting, and even more so implementing, a new solution which will solve every problem imaginable is infectious. The project sponsors have compiled the concerns and issues from their front-line resources and developers are giddy with ...

SQL Server Synonyms and How to Leverage Them in an ETL Process
In 2005 Microsoft introduced the synonym functionality for SQL Server. While Synonyms are not something SQL developers are likely to use on a daily basis, they are very powerful and useful, despite being relatively simple. They are essentially a placeholder that can be used as a static value in a ...

The Costs of (not) Catching Up 
Technology is used in companies to improve efficiency, reduce the possibility of human error, and increase productivity. Once a technology stops doing these things because it slows the process, crashes, and constantly requires maintenance it is time to update. Unfortunately, it has become all too ...

Beginner’s Guide to Web Accessibility
Today, more people are accessing the world wide web, and using a wide variety of devices and assistants to do so, than ever before. This means it is crucial that your website works properly with all the different ways your user’s can interact with your website. Unfortunately, for many small- to ...

Creating a Vue.js & .NET Core Web App
Here at SCS, we have been utilizing Visual Studio’s ability to create .NET Core web applications, bundled with Angular or React, for several years now. This has allowed us to get a web application project quickly and efficiently up and running. We can avoid spending a lot of time on the setup ...

Lunch & Learn Series
Check back regularly for newly scheduled Lunch and Learn Offerings.

What is a Container?
When working on software development projects, have you ever run into a problem where you do not have the necessary framework or dependencies installed? This problem arises when the environment used to support or develop software is not identical to the production environment where it is run. For ...

Tutorial Blog: Creating a Reusable PowerApps Navigation Menu Component
Introduction Microsoft’s PowerApps allows anyone to create simple, low-code solutions quickly. PowerApps is a fantastic solution for addressing many companies’ various internal business needs and allows for rapid prototyping and deployment. However, PowerApps certainly has its own learning curve, ...

Questions to Ask Regarding Your Company’s Data For A More Successful 2021
As we get ready to turn the page on another year, what steps are you taking to set your business up for success? Your data is central to your business and having the right analytics in place to capture and interpret this data is critical. To help you prepare, we compiled a list of questions you can ...

Improve Your Performance and Profitability Today

SCS uses best-in-class tools to deliver database, reporting and data platform and analytics solutions. We partner with your team to develop custom solutions.

The 12 Days of Christmas: SCS-Style!
On the first day of Christmas my technology experts at SCS gave to me analytics environment design and development. (This means I don’t have to try and make meaningful comparisons out of siloed data!)

Holiday Blog
We have quickly approached the Holiday season for 2020 and while this has been a year like no other, there is still the busy-ness of the season that we can count on. Every store we go into now or commercial we hear on the radio and television is reminding us that it is the holiday season. You can ...

Awesome Apps in Microsoft 365 You Probably Don’t Know About!
Maybe you’re looking for software that allows your employees to collaborate from anywhere in the world with cloud-based services, the latest programs and robust security. Or maybe you’re already investing in technology like the Microsoft 365 platform but have only scratched the surface and want to ...

An Introduction to Microsoft Teams
A component of Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams takes teamwork to the next level with intuitive navigation and on-point features that make doing business even easier. Let’s take a closer look!