Read summaries of some recent Leszynski Group projects; click to jump to the project abstract for:

• Microsoft

• Toyota

• State of New York

• Starbucks

Microsoft - Tablet PC PowerToys

Always on the lookout for innovative new technologies to bring to its clients, Leszynski Group became acquainted with Microsoft's Tablet PC plans about a year before launch, and approached Microsoft to find out more about the platform and to become an early adopter.  Microsoft quickly realized that Leszynski Group could prove a valuable outsource partner to design and build certain software offerings for the launch of the Tablet PC.

Microsoft wanted to create consumer and business applications to demonstrate the uniqueness of its upcoming Tablet PC platform, and "went to the whiteboard" with Leszynski Group's software architects.  Together, they designed four software applications and a dozen tools for software developers.  Over the course of a year, Leszynski Group developers spent over 20,000 hours mastering solution development with the Tablet PC Platform SDK in .Net.  The end result was the first suite of applications for the new Tablet PC, including two programs posted for public download on Microsoft's Web site -- Snipping Tool, the first Tablet PC productivity utility, and Tablet Pool, the first official Tablet PC game!

In recognition of Leszynski Group's pioneering contribution to the Tablet PC platform, Microsoft invited the company to participate in the global launch in New York City in November 2002, and to speak in eight regional launch event keynote presentations across the U.S.

See also the related case study and the Tablet PC section of this site. 

Toyota - Data Management Systems

In 2001, Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America retained Leszynski Group to bring a disciplined approach to software and data systems planning.  Toyota's Environmental Affairs Group was seeking a capable and systematic approach to data management after experiencing a disappointing failure from a vendor that attempted to implement a one-size-fits-all environmental management system.  Toyota was impressed by the Leszynski Development Framework (LDF), Leszynski Group's published approach to describing and tackling complex business systems problems.

Working with Toyota's Information Systems Group and the North American Environmental Affairs team, Leszynski Group designed a multi-year iterative development strategy to extract value from the entire spectrum of Toyota's complex environmental data.  Using Microsoft SQL Server and the Slipstream toolset (Leszynski Group's proprietary XML-based user interface framework), an application was built allowing the Toyota Environmental team to consolidate data from 11 North American manufacturing plants and to refine the data for use by the Japanese parent company.  Leszynski Group designed the application to minimize the impact on the corporate IS server administrators and to provide a strong role-based security structure that could easily be distributed downstream to additional plants.

In 2002, Leszynski Group started building additional application modules for Air Emissions, Waste/Recycling Management, Raw Materials Approval, and a data mart for compiling and reporting on Environmental Key Performance Indicators.  In 2003, Leszynski Group began the deployment of the application modules throughout Toyota's North American manufacturing facilities.

In 2004, Leszynski Group's responsibilities at Toyota were expanded to include mobilizing key data collection processes using the Tablet PC.  Leszynski Group designed and built a 'digital paper' system that moved ten key factory inspection processes from paper forms to portable electronic devices, allowing factory maintenance teams to collect equipment data more rapidly and accurately.

Leszynski Group's successes in developing solutions to Toyota's complex, regulations-bound, ever-changing business needs springs from its refined development strategy and from its comprehensive approach to discovering business needs at all levels using LDF. 

New York State - Healthcare Solution

Leszynski Group executives met the Chief Information Officer of New York's Office of Mental Health at a Tablet PC event in 2002, and the fit was immediately obvious.  New York State was already very interested in the (unreleased) Tablet PC, and Leszynski Group was passionate about creating a signature mobile healthcare solution to demonstrate the power of the Tablet PC in that sector.  New York State chose to work with Leszynski Group to automate a key workflow -- the investigation of special incidents in state mental healthcare facilities.

Part 524 of the Codes, Rules, and Regulations of the State of New York mandates that all programs operated by the Office of Mental Health have in place viable incident management programs and take responsibility for prompt and systematic  investigation of all non-routine incidents.  The term 'special investigation' refers to a comprehensive, objective investigation and analysis of client related incidents.

Historically, special investigations were conducted using a bound instruction manual for guidance and many hardcopy forms.  This workflow suffered from a lack of consistent and comprehensive data collection and from the lack of a centralized data collection and analysis system.  By moving this workflow to a Tablet PC, many benefits were realized, not the least of which were far superior data quality and hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in cost savings.  Click here to see a detailed solution overview slide show.

Leszynski Group's success at New York state was lauded by Bill Gates in his keynote to global IT leaders in May of 2003. 

Starbucks - Mobile Computing Solutions

Leszynski Group is often retained by clients to build distributed data solutions.  If you have been inside a Starbucks Coffee Company location recently, you may have noticed that you can use the Starbucks/T-Mobile HotSpot network to connect wirelessly to the Internet using a PDA, laptop, or Tablet PC while you enjoy your double tall vanilla extra hot non-fat no-foam latte.  Some of the first prototypes and applications using this technology were developed by Leszynski Group.

One Leszynski Group project for Starbucks involved creating a Gold Standard Survey application.  Starbucks sends specially trained quality assurance inspectors to each store once a month.  These inspectors review a long list of store quality items from cleanliness and supply levels to observing that each shot of coffee is mixed into a drink within 10 seconds.

In the past, inspectors used a paper survey.  Leszynski Group replaced this workflow with a version of the Gold Standard Survey that it developed for Microsoft Windows Pocket PC Edition running on HP IPAQ computers.  The solution included software tools for gathering time and motion studies and for synchronizing the collected data back to corporate server databases when the site being inspected was not wired as a HotSpot.  "The requirements for building this pilot were very strict and I was amazed at not only how quickly Leszynski Group got the software finished, but how well it worked," noted PH, a Starbucks Senior Project Manager.

Leszynski Group's successes at Starbucks are another example of how we take client data, improve it, and distribute it.