The Brian Madden Company consulting services

The Brian Madden Company is uniquely positioned to provide Citrix, Terminal Server, and server-based computing consulting services that are expert-driven, technology-focused, and completely independent and unbiased. (Read more about us.)

Our consulting services are led by Brian Madden (bio), author of several books, hundreds of articles, and thousands of online user forum posts. Brian is the founder of the annual BriForum conference and runs this website, by far the most popular server-based computing website with millions ofvisitors per year. He’s universally recognized as one of the top experts in the world and he’s a three-time Microsoft MVP. Brian works closely with our other technical analyst, Gabe Knuth (bio). Gabe and Brian have been working together since 1998.

Why use our services?

The Brian Madden Company is truly unique in this industry.

We are independent
We are NOT a Microsoft partner. We are NOT a Citrix partner. We do not resell any software or hardware. We do NOT get any kickbacks or commissions from any vendors for pushing their products or solutions. The only thing we rely on is our reputation. This means that you get completely unbiased opinions from us based on real technical facts and capabilities of various products.

We do this full time
Server-based computing technology is the ONLY technology we work with. We make it our job to keep up with the latest developments in the industry. In fact, many other analyst and consulting firms “in the know” get their information from our website.

We help with more than just the technology
Remember, we’re industry analysts. We focus on everything that’s going on in the industry. We can help you by providing feedback during the development of your products. We can also help you determine which product is the right solution for your environment.

How are our consulting projects usually structured?

Most of the consulting we do is design- and architecture-based. (It’s not that we won’t do troubleshooting, it’s just that logistically, troubleshooting projects don’t usually work out. Our schedule typically fills up 4 to 6 weeks in advance, and most people need help with troubleshooting faster than that.)

Sample Offerings

All of the offerings we have are typically customized for a specific environment. We have put together the following offerings as guidelines for some of the types of offerings we have.

Onsite Design Review and Quality Assurance
This service is for organizations currently using Citrix who want some outside experts to validate their design. This offering includes a deliverable--a document which consists of a “scorecard” of the overall health of your company’s Citrix implementation. This covers approximately 25 major points in a Citrix implementation.  Each point is scored and with any point not receiving the highest score of “Excellent” we provide recommendations on how to improve upon this area. This document would also identify any single points of failure and high risk areas. In summary, this document provides an assessment of the environment, which is helpful to management, as well as technical detail, useful to the engineer.

Many real results come out of the workshop, with final documentation typically delivered less than a week later.

Remote Design Review
This is the most cost effective review service we offer. The customer provides details about their environment to The Brian Madden Company, and we review the design and make suggestions, comments, and recommendations.

The customer can provide existing documentation, or can complete a design form and questionnaire provided by us. We work with the customer ahead of time to find out what the specific hot issues are.

Remote Telephone Consultation
On occasion, we are able to offer remote telephone consultations at an hourly rate. These phone calls can vary in length and generally a one hour minimum is required. Keep in mind that we are primarily independent industry technical analysts. We are not designed to do support. Sometimes you can email us and we’re able to talk to you that same day. At other times we don’t have any availability for weeks or months.

Notes about these sample offerings
As the title implies, these offerings are just samples. All of the work that we do is customized for the specific situation, but these offerings are the types of projects and price ranges that we usually work in. Sometimes we engage in projects that are only a few hours in length. Other times we might spend 20 or 30 hours on a single project. It is rare that we would ever spend more than 40 or 50 hours on a single project.

Why? It’s simple. We do more than just consulting. We work with vendors, test new products in the lab, teach classes, write articles, and speak at conferences. We don’t “disappear” for months on end at a customer’s location. This work breakdown ensures that customers get the absolute industry best practices when they engage a Brian Madden Company consultant.

Also, please note that none of these sample offerings are for “troubleshooting” services. What does this mean? Of course our design reviews will help you with design and architecture trouble spots (servers are too slow, how to handle offsite users with good performance, etc.). These samples, however, are not designed to help you in pure troubleshooting situations. The sample offerings are for design and architecture, and we are only able to offer them at a fixed price by making a very specific scope.

Sounds great! How do I book you?

Gabe Knuth handles the logistics of all of our consulting projects, including new inquiries and scheduling. Nicole Carbone is our business manager. She handles all billing, payment, PO, and W-9 matters.

Gabe and Nicole's contact information is available on the "Contact Us" page.

Past Clients

We have worked with hundreds of clients over the past ten years. Here are just a few of our happy customers:

ABB
Advanstar
Allied Signal
Alverno Information Systems
American Express
American Greetings
Antares Health Management
Baker & Hostetler, LLP
Becton, Dickinson, and Company
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Cincinnati Financial Corporation
Cisco Systems
Clarian Health Partners (Indianapolis, IN)
Cleveland Clinic Health System
Compaq
Dana
Diebold
EDS
FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health
General Electric
Goodyear Tire and Rubber
HP
Inacom Information Systems
Jones, Day, Reavis, & Pogue, LLP
Kent State University
KeyBank
KFC
McDonald & Company Investments
Metrohealth Medical System (Cleveland, OH)
Moen
NASA Glenn Research Center
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
Promedica Health Systems (Toledo, OH)
Simon Property Group
Sony Electronics
Taco Bell
Telxon Wireless
Timken
TMP Worldwide
Universal Media
University Hospitals (Cleveland, OH)
US Army
US Department of Agriculture
US Department of Defense
US Department of State
US Navy
Vanstar
Volvo
Wacker Chemie, GmbH
Washington Group International
Wendy's
Westfield Insurance