The following selected project synopses illustrate the depth and breadth of the Flywheel Group's capabilities in the security and security risk management areas.
- Security Risk Management System
- Network Risk Management Plan
- Streaming Video Security System
- Secure Online Contract Management System
- Business Risk Management Plan
- Operations Risk Management Plan
Security Risk Management System
A consumer goods company needed an automated solution to help identify risks, effectively prioritize hardening expenditures, and enable "what if" analysis to weigh the cost and benefits of proposed protection measures. The Flywheel Group designed an integrated security risk management platform to accomplish those goals. The platform is linked to operational systems including production, packaging, and distribution.
The company will be able to proactively assess their vulnerability at any time across their global facilities, projecting risks and allocating resources for maximum effectiveness. The company will also be able to identify a specific threat, quantify its risk and assess the cost-benefit of various mitigation strategies.
In an emergency event, the company will be able to prioritize security issues as well as enable information sharing with managers and first responders. This will facilitate better on-the-fly decisions and event management for securing citizens, critical assets, and preserving business operations.
Network Risk Management Plan
An international organization was experiencing severe computer network performance issues and inordinate cyber-hacking, with loss of critical data and system damage due to network security deficiencies.
Flywheel Group performed a security audit of existing infrastructures, including all points of entry into the internal and external network. Flywheel Group network security experts used port scanning tools to find weaknesses in connections to the Internet and routers, as well as other security and administration testing tools. The five core areas of vulnerability the Flywheel Group addressed were Firewall/VPN, DNS Zone File, Spam filtering and Security Patches.
Flywheel Group developed a tactical Network Security plan to prioritize elimination of the major vulnerabilities, resulting in a reliable and secure networking environment. Based on the Flywheel Group's analysis and network security plan, the client now has an accurate assessment of its existing IT infrastructure, as well as clear security procedures, tools, and policies which have dramatically improved network security and performance.
Streaming Video Security System
A nationwide security surveillance company wanted to enhance their security surveillance services; while at the same time they reduced costs. A key requirement was to provide detailed image resolution analysis. Some of the image analysis requirements included scanning streaming images to match a pre-stored image, or zoom-in/zoom-out freeze-frame analysis, and 3-D image scanning.
The Flywheel Group developed a digital streaming video platform that enabled images to be collected and stored remotely. This platform provides immediate business benefit by reducing the costs of using, storing, and analyzing traditional VHS videotape media. This streaming video platform enables the surveillance analysis to be conducted remotely, with the ability to electronically transmit images to first responders, or law enforcement agencies for further image analysis.
This surveillance service now provides the ability for clientele to store images of offenders, and it enables law enforcement agencies to map images of suspects to the digital images to accelerate the identification and apprehension process.
Secure Online Contract Management System
A client required a state-of-the-art secure contract management system that would enable application subscribers to download stock contracts, insert language, edit using Word features, and send edited contracts to non-subscribers for review & editing, while not compromising the text authorship of the client. Further, a new subscription method was required, to simplify subscription administration, as well as to ensure pricing consistency. Most importantly, tracking of document use for potential copyright infringement was a bottom line requirement.
The Flywheel Group implemented a development roadmap to guide the client through application development, prototyping, functional validation, QA testing, and final release - all within a strict timetable. To facilitate consensus on priorities and issues, the Flywheel Group used a system for collecting, weighting, and scoring user input, enabling rapid decision-making.
The new product, engineered around a Microsoft Word & Adobe-based document assembly system, enables stand-alone CD as well as web-based applications distribution. The document assembly system is able to draw from multiple sources: form documents and sub-document boilerplate components as well as end-user data resources such as images, CAD drawings, or even multimedia files. Users can define rules for generating complex documents on the fly, or build them ad-hoc via simple cut and paste. A simplified user interface enables fast fill-in of variable fields by hand; automated fill-in by database-driven processing is also supported. Version control, author ID, change-tracking, revisions history, and version comparison, is now supported end-to-end yielding a highly secure environment that protects the client's intellectual property as well as their client's privacy.
Business Risk Management Plan
A top-tier national healthcare association, representing over 9000 hospitals and a $60 million annual budget, was losing membership and experiencing disruptive conflicts with state hospital associations severely impacting consistent policy and lobbying efforts. It was critical to leverage the strengths and contributions of all members and state associations, to fortify the client's position, as well as to accelerate significant non-dues revenue.
The Flywheel Group designed a secure online marketplace to enable significant marketing of products and services to all members, as well as to provide a venue for all state associations to showcase their programs, with autonomy and privacy.
The Flywheel Group designed the HIPAA-compliant, portal-based online market for secure, easy access to online services of significant commercial value to members and vendors. The portal provided a secure content management system to distribute information at significantly reduced costs for action alerts, newsletters, monthly magazines, annual reports, etc. In addition, it provides members with valuable business intelligence, including a CDP-911 repository, a HIPAA compliance reference database, and rich industry benchmarking data for reports, queries, and interactive analysis. This program has proven-in the stakeholders vision and is meeting all key success factors.
Operations Risk Management Plan
The operations costs for a critical line of business (LOB) were well-beyond 3x plan, and increasing by double-digits, with no end in sight. This LOB represented about 30% of the client's annual revenues but was significantly in the red.
The Flywheel Group conducted a root cause analysis across all aspects of the LOB's operations, identifying near and long-term issues. Using industry norms, the Flywheel Group developed an operations cost model as a baseline and a technology-based process analysis resulting in a comprehensive prioritization of product & process improvements.
Flywheel Group managed the subsequent reengineering effort, including software bug fixes, new product development, online product purchase development, Customer Care, QA testing, market rollout, and product launch. The results reflect costs levels within industry norms, doubling of sales, and significantly increased customer satisfaction. This program has now become the client's flagship product.