Phil Marcus: One of the first things I learned when I started out is that every business or organization is different. Therefore, I never assume beforehand that I know what my clients want or need. Instead, I begin by asking straightforward, non-technical questions about how things are going now.

Phil Marcus: One of the biggest problems I see is that of companies being saddled with database systems that are incompatible with their needs. This is because so many software engineers make biased or subjective assumptions and tend to use their favorite solutions over and over. As a result, other features that are critical to success never make it into the system design.

The client had files for thousands of sessions that had been submitted and denied, as well as files for many sessions that apparently had never been submitted but should have been. Collectively, these sessions represented tens of thousands of dollars. By selective content analysis, I was able to show at a glance which billings and services were or were not being properly submitted.